At least 68 African refugees and migrants have perished by drowning and 74 others remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, the United Nations migration agency (IOM) said.
Abdusattor Esoev, head of the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, said in an interview with The Associated Press news agency on Sunday that the boat, with 154 Ethiopians aboard, capsized off Yemen’s province of Abyan.
He added that twelve people survived the shipwreck, 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 major but perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in both directions.
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.
