At least 43 migrants drown off Yemen
YEMEN: At least 43 African migrants trying to reach Yemen by boat
have drowned in heavy seas off the coast and a second boat with up to 40
Ethiopians aboard is missing, Yemen's Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry website said three Somalis were rescued after a vessel
carrying 46 people, mostly from Ethiopia, capsized, and a second boat
carrying Ethiopians was missing.
"It's not known in which direction the wind took them and their fate
is unknown," the website quoted the Yemeni coastguard as saying of the
missing vessel, which it said carried 35-40 Ethiopians including women
and children.
The U.N. refugee agency said five men among 46 Ethiopian and Somali
passengers had survived the tragedy, which witnesses said began when the
engine was caught in fishing nets of the boat, which had left Djibouti
three hours earlier.
"This caused panic among the passengers who began to move around
causing the boat to capsize. The two smugglers, Yemeni men, jumped off
the boat. It is not known whether they survived," UNHCR chief
spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Reuters.
"UNHCR staff will be interviewing the survivors tomorrow (Tuesday) to
learn more," she said, adding the Geneva-based agency had no word yet on
the fate of the second boat.
Mass drownings have been frequent as many African migrants in
unseaworthy boats try to reach Yemen, which they see as a gateway to
wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West.
"The Gulf of Aden is still used by many migrants and asylum seekers
trying to get to Yemen and then further on to Saudi Arabia,"
Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman of the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM), told Reuters. Aden, Tuesday, Reuters
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