At least 49 people were killed and 140 others went missing after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. The boat was reportedly carrying nearly 260 Somalis and Ethiopians across the Gulf of Aden when it sank on Monday. At least, 71 people have been rescued while the search operation has been ongoing.
It is pertinent to note that Yemen is one of the most frequent routes for migrants trying to escape poverty in Africa and go to Gulf countries for work. However, Yemen has been engulfed in a bloody civil war for over a decade now, jeopardizing the safety of the sea route. Despite that, the number of migrants arriving annually tripled from 2021 to 2023, soaring from about 27,000 to over 90,000, the IOM said last month. Around 380,000 migrants are currently in Yemen, according to the agency.
