African migrant boat capsizes off Yemen coast, 68 Killed

At least 68 African migrants died and 74 others were missing after their boat capsized Sunday in the waters off Yemen, the UN’s migration agency said. Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration(IOM) in Yemen, told the Associated Press that the boat, with 154 Ethiopian migrants, capsized off Yemen’s province of Abyan. Twelve migrants survived the shipwreck, he said, adding that the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar and 14 others were found dead at a different location and taken to a hospital morgue.

The IOM says Yemen continues to witness a significant increase in the influx of irregular migrants arriving from Africa. Migrants cross the Bab al-Mandab strait that separates Djibouti and Eritrea from Yemen each year on flimsy boats in the hope of reaching Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries in the hope of finding work.The IOM describes the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen as "one of the world's busiest and most perilous mixed migration routes". It said it recorded the arrival of more than 60,000 migrants in Yemen last year. Notably, Yemen, despite more than a decade of civil war, is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf Arab countries for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.