More than 65 refugees and migrants die in boat sinking off Yemeni coast

The UN’s migration agency reports that at least 68 African refugees and migrants have died and 74 others have vanished since a boat capsized off Yemen’s coast.

The boat capsized off Yemen’s Abyan province on Sunday, according to Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the country.

According to him, only 12 people managed to survive the shipwreck, including the bodies of 54 refugees and migrants who were found dead in Khanfar and taken to a hospital morgue.

54 people had already died, according to Yemeni health officials.

Authorities were making arrangements for the burial of the victims near Shaqra, according to Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the Zanzibar health office, while difficult circumstances remained open for search.

Refugees and migrants traveling in both directions frequently use the waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, but they are dangerous. After the civil war broke out in 2014, the number of Yemenis fleeing the country increased.

A truce agreement between Houthi rebels and government forces in April 2022 led to a decrease in violence and a sluggish relief of Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, some of the people fleeing the conflict in Africa, particularly in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have attempted to travel through the nation to more prosperous Gulf nations. According to IOM, the route continues to be one of the “busiest and most hazardous” migration routes in the world.

People are taken by smugglers across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden in dangerous, overcrowded boats to Yemen.

In 2024, more than 60 000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen, according to IOM, a significant decrease from the 97 200 refugees and migrants’ total from the previous year.

According to an IOM report released in May, the numbers have decreased as a result of increased water patrols.

In the past two years, hundreds have died as a result of this deadly route. According to the IOM, 558 people died along the way last year.

According to the IOM, at least 2, 082 people have vanished along the way over the past ten years, of which 693 are thought to have perished. Around 380 000 refugees and migrants are currently residing in Yemen.