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Rescue operations are ongoing to search out dozens extra lacking, native authorities say.
Not less than 54 African refugees and migrants have died and dozens stay lacking after a ship capsized off the coast of Yemen, in accordance with well being authorities in Abyan governorate within the south of the nation.
Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the well being workplace in Zanzibar, mentioned on Sunday that rescue groups had recovered 54 our bodies from the seashores there and surrounding areas, whereas 12 survivors have been transferred to Shaqra Hospital.
The boat carrying round 150 folks, principally from Ethiopia, capsized within the Arabian Sea off the coast of Shaqra, within the Abyan governorate, attributable to sturdy winds on Saturday night.
Bajamil famous that authorities have been making preparations to bury the victims in an space close to town, whereas search operations continued amid tough circumstances.
The waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa are a widespread however perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in each instructions. The world noticed a spike in Yemenis fleeing the nation after the civil struggle broke out in 2014.
Houthi rebels and authorities forces reached a truce deal in April 2022 that has resulted in a lower in violence and the slight easing of the continued humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
In the meantime, a few of these fleeing battle in Africa, notably in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have sought to journey by the nation to the extra affluent Gulf international locations. The route stays one of many “busiest and most perilous” migration routes on the earth, in accordance with the United Nations’ Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).
To achieve Yemen, persons are taken by smugglers on typically harmful, overcrowded boats throughout the Purple Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
Based on the IOM, greater than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a major drop from the earlier yr’s whole of 97,200.
The decreased numbers come amid elevated patrols of the waters, in accordance with an IOM report launched in Might.
This can be a lethal route that has killed tons of over the previous two years. Based on the IOM, 558 folks died alongside the route final yr.
Over the previous decade, a minimum of 2,082 folks have disappeared alongside the route, together with 693 recognized to have drowned, in accordance with the IOM. Yemen presently homes round 380,000 refugees and migrants.
