Sana'a, Yemen - At least seven African migrants have drowned
after smugglers forced passengers of an illegal boat to jump into the
sea after crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen, Yemeni
officials said on Saturday.
The officials said five bodies, including one of a woman, were
recovered by local fishermen hours after the incident that took place
late on Friday off the coast of Hisn Baleayd in the southern Yemeni
province of Abyan.
Two other bodies of dead passengers washed up on the beach on
Saturday, the officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. They said
123 people survived.
Survivors said 130 people on board the boat were ordered at
gunpoint to swim several kilometres to the shore.
The boat had set off from the town of Bossaso, in the breakaway
Somali republic of Puntland.
Hundreds of Somali and Ethiopian migrants perish every year
crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in small boats run by smugglers
operating from Somali ports.
Some 18,000 people, mainly Somalis, have arrived in Yemen in small
boats across the Gulf of Aden and nearly 400 are believed to have
drowned attempting the journey since the beginning of 2008.
Last year, more than 113,000 people, mostly Somalis, made the
perilous voyage to Yemen, with over 1,400 deaths.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called on
the international community last week to intervene to end the
conflict in Somalia as a means to end the refugee exodus.
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