IOM: Death Toll of Migrant Shipwreck off Yemen Rises to Forty- Nine

The International Organization of Migration said on Tuesday that at least 49 migrants had died, and 140 others remained missing after their boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, revising higher an earlier toll from local officials.

The boat traveling from Somalia was carrying Somali and Ethiopian passengers, the IOM statement said. Among the dead were 31 women and six children, it said.
According to the survivors, the boat departed from Bossaso in Somalia at around 3:00 am on Sunday, carrying 115 Somali nationals and 145 Ethiopians, with 90 women among them. This mirrors the recent rise in migrants from the Horn of Africa travelling to Yemen, spurred by political and economic instability, alongside severe droughts and other extreme weather events in countries like Ethiopia and Somalia.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing despite significant challenges due to a shortage of operational patrol boats, a situation further complicated by the recent conflict. Local community members, including fishermen, played a crucial role in the aftermath by assisting with the recovery efforts and helping to lay the deceased to rest at Ayn-Bamaabed cemetery.
Despite these efforts, 140 individuals are still missing, and efforts are currently underway to explore additional search and rescue options as more bodies continue to wash ashore in various locations.
The Eastern Horn of Africa to Yemen is one of the world’s busiest and most perilous mixed migration routes, frequented by hundreds of thousands of migrants, the majority of whom undertake irregular journeys. Often relying on smugglers to navigate the journey, migrants are frequently at an increased risk, including of human trafficking, during the perilous boat journey to Yemen’s shores.
Despite the ongoing conflict in Yemen, thousands of migrants continue to transit through Yemen in hopes of reaching the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. In 2023, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) observed more than 97,200 migrant arrivals to Yemen, surpassing figures from last year when just over 73,000 migrants arrived in Yemen.