At 54 people died when a boat carrying 150 people sank off Yemen’s coast in bad weather on Sunday.

Many people remain unaccounted for, per health officials.

The boat capsized off the Ahwar district in Yemen’s southern Abyan province on the Arabian Sea, security sources said.

Abdul Qadir Bajameel, a health official, stated that 10 of the 150 people on the vessel were saved, including 9 Ethiopians and a Yemeni, but dozens are still missing.

Two medics said rescuers were still searching for survivors.

The International Organisation for Migration said that Yemen is witnessing a rise in the influx of irregular migrants arriving from Africa.

Migrants cross the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that separates Djibouti and Eritrea from Yemen every year on flimsy boats to reach Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations in the hope of finding work.

The IOM also described the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen as one of the world’s busiest and most dangerous mixed migration routes.

It is recorded that over 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024.

Source: www.marineinsight.com