At least 49 dead after migrant boat sinks off Yemen coast

CAIRO – A boat carrying migrants has sunk off the coast of Yemen. At least 49 people were killed and 140 are missing, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.

The boat was carrying around 260 Somalis and Ethiopians from the northern coast of Somalia on the 320-kilometer journey across the Gulf of Aden when it sank off the southern coast of Yemen on Monday, the IOM said in a statement.

It was said that the search was continuing and that 71 people had been rescued so far. Among the dead were 31 women and six children, it was said.

Yemen is a key route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf states for work. Despite a civil war that has lasted nearly a decade in Yemen, the number of migrants arriving annually has tripled from 2021 to 2023, rising from about 27,000 to over 90,000, the IOM said last month. There are currently around 380,000 migrants in Yemen, according to the agency.

To reach Yemen, migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. In April, at least 62 people died in two shipping accidents off the coast of Djibouti while trying to reach Yemen. According to the IOM, at least 1,860 people have died or disappeared along the route, including 480 who drowned.

The sinking of the ship on Monday was “another reminder of the urgent need to work together to address pressing migration challenges and ensure the safety of migrants along migration routes,” said IOM spokesman Mohammedali Abunajela.