More than 100 Somali and Ethiopian migrants drowned off the
coast of Yemen after a smuggler's boat capsized earlier this week
in the Gulf of Aden, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on
Friday.
The Geneva-based agency said 107 bodies had been found along a
remote stretch of the Yemen coastline after one out of four
smuggler's boats approaching the coastline capsized far from the
shore on Monday. Survivors said at least five people remain
missing.
According to witnesses, the capsized smuggler's boat was
carrying 120 Somalis and Ethiopians. After it overturned, a second
smuggling vessel, also carrying 120 people, forced all its
passengers into the sea, picked up the smugglers from the capsized
vessel and headed back into the Gulf of Aden. The 240 people were
left in the high seas.
"The Somalis said they fled their homes during and following the
end of recent hostilities between government forces and the Islamic
Courts Union," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in
Geneva.
(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2007)
