A boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 49 dead and 140 missing, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday. The boat was carrying some 260 Somalis and Ethiopians from the northern coast of Somalia on the 320-kilometer (200-mile) journey across the Gulf of Aden when it sank on Monday off Yemen’s southern coast, the IOM said in a statement. It said search efforts were continuing and so far 71 had been rescued. Among the dead were 31 women and six children, it said.
Each year many tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa set off across the Red Sea in a bid to reach the oil-rich Gulf, escaping conflict, natural disasters or poor economic prospects. In April, two boats sank off the coast of Djibouti just two weeks apart, leaving dozens dead. The IOM said at the time it had recorded a total of 1,350 deaths on the migration route since 2014, not including this year. In 2023 alone, it said it documented at least 698 deaths on the route, including 105 lost at sea. The IOM said on Tuesday it was "providing immediate aid to survivors".