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25 April 2009 SANAA: At least 35 African migrants
drowned and 13 were missing after a rickety boat
carrying 110 people capsized off Yemen's southeastern
coast yesterday, police said.
Police officials told Arab News that 35 bodies,
including nine women, washed up on the shore of Rada,
some 260 km east of the southern port city of Aden.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said 62 managed to swim to shore, and were taken to a
medical center run by Doctors Without Borders, in
nearby Ahwar.
They said the accident took place early in the day
as the overcrowded boat capsized in strong winds as it
approached the shore after a three-day trip across the
Gulf of Aden from Somalia.
They said the passengers were Somalis and
Ethiopians but were not able to provide a breakdown.
The local NGO, Society of Human Solidarity, said
its field teams buried the bodies in a graveyard in
Ahwar.
Another boat carrying 100 migrants arrived in the
same area and its passengers disembarked safely, the
officials said.
Many African migrants, mostly from conflict-torn
Somalia, try to reach Yemen, which is seen as a
gateway to Europe and the rich countries of the
Arabian Peninsula.
Hundreds of people perish every year in the
perilous exodus that takes thousands of desperate
Somalis and Ethiopians to Yemen in small boats run by
human traffickers operating from Somali ports.
Since the beginning of this year, 387 boats and
19,622 people have arrived in Yemen from the Horn of
Africa via this dangerous sea route. Some 74 died
while another 51 have gone missing during those trips.
Last year, 50,000 people were smuggled into Yemen by
sea and 949 died making the trip. |
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