Fifty six killed as vessel carrying  majorly Ethiopian migrants capsizes

A boat carrying majorly Ethiopian  migrants capsized over the weekend off the coast of war-torn Yemen killing  56  people.

132 people according to the U.N. immigration agency The International Organisation for Migration, (IOM)  said Tuesday.

It is the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen that killed hundreds trying to reach wealthy Arab Gulf countries in the hope of a better life.

The vessel had 200 people on board when it sank early Sunday off the coastal town of Shuqrah in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. Authorities recovered 56 bodies, including 14 women, while 12 men were rescued as of Tuesday morning, the agency said.

An operation to find those missing is underway, Abyan security directorate said late Monday, adding that the body of the boat captain, a Yemeni citizen, was recovered among 14 others off Zinjibar, the provincial capital.

“This heartbreaking incident highlights the urgent need to address the dangers of irregular migration along the Eastern Route,” the IOM said.

Initially, Abdusattor Esoev, IOM chief in Yemen, said on Sunday the boat carried 154 Ethiopian migrants, with 68 killed and 74 missing.

In its Tuesday statement, IOM said more than 350 migrants died or went missing in shipwrecks so far this year along the Eastern Route, which migrants from the Horn of Africa use to reach Yemen. The actual figure is likely to be significantly higher, it said.

Yemen has been a major transit point for African migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty. Smugglers often take them on dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, despite being one of the poorest Arab countries and mired in a civil war for more than a decade.

More than 60,000 migrants arrived there in 2024, according to the IOM.