Middle-East

Thirty-eight migrants killed after boat capsizes off Yemen

Yemeni coastguard members ride in a patrol boat in the Red Sea off of the government-held town of Mokha in the western Taiz province, close to the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, on December 12, 2023. (Photo: KHALED ZIAD/AFP via Getty Images)

By Reuters | Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Hadi Al-Khurma, the director of Rudum district said the boat sank before it reached the shores of the Shabwa governorate, east of Aden.

Thirty-eight migrants coming from the Horn of Africa were killed after their boat capsized off Yemen's Aden, a local official and witnesses said on Monday.

Hadi Al-Khurma, the director of Rudum district, told Reuters the boat sank before it reached the shores of the Shabwa governorate, east of Aden.

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"Fishermen and residents managed to rescue 78 of the migrants, who reported that about 100 others who were with them on the same boat are missing. The search is still ongoing, and the United Nations has been informed of the incident," he said.

According to the United Nations, 97,000 migrants arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa last year.

last month, Tunisia recovered the bodies of four migrants off the country's coast, the national guard said, amid an increase in migrant boats heading from Tunisia toward Italy in recent weeks.

The force said the coast guard separately rescued 52 migrants. The National Guard arrested nine smugglers, and boats were seized.