AT least 68 African refugees and migrants have died and 74 others remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, according to the United Nations migration agency.
Abdusattor Esoev, head of the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, told The Associated Press news agency on Sunday that the boat, with 154 Ethiopians aboard, capsized off Yemen’s province of Abyan.
Twelve people survived the shipwreck, he said, adding that the bodies of 54 refugees and migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar and 14 others were found dead at a different location and taken to a hospital morgue.
Yemeni health authorities earlier said that 54 people had died.
Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the health office in Zanzibar, said that authorities were making arrangements to bury the victims near the city of Shaqra, while search opportunities continued amid difficult conditions.
The waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa are a common but perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in both directions. The area saw a spike in Yemenis fleeing the country after the civil war broke out in 2014.
Houthi rebels and government forces reached a truce deal in April 2022 that has resulted in a decrease in violence and the slight easing of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Meanwhile, some of those fleeing conflict in Africa, particularly in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have sought to travel through the country to the more prosperous Gulf countries. The route remains one of the “busiest and most perilous” migration routes in the world, according to the IOM.
To reach Yemen, people are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
According to the IOM, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a significant drop from the previous year’s total of 97,200.
The decreased numbers come amid increased patrols of the waters, according to an IOM report released in May.
This is a deadly route that has killed hundreds over the past two years. According to the IOM, 558 people died along the route last year.
Over the past decade, at least 2,082 people have disappeared along the route, including 693 known to have drowned, according to the IOM. Yemen currently houses around 380,000 refugees and migrants.