In the most recent tragedy on treacherous sea journeys, a boat carrying primarily Ethiopian migrants capsized off Yemen, killing at least 76 people and leaving dozens more missing.
AFRIPOST gathered that 32 people have been rescued and 76 dead have been found from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden, according to Yemeni security officials on Monday.
According to the UN migration agency, there were 157 passengers.
The incident happened off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, which is a common stop for boats transporting African migrants en route to the affluent Gulf states.
A security officer disclosed that some of the rescued have been moved to Aden, which is close to Abyan in Yemen.
The International Organisation for Migration, a UN organisation, had earlier reported that at least 68 people had died.
“The fate of the missing is still unknown,” Abdusattor Esoev, the local chief of mission for the IOM, told AFP.
Yemen has been a major transit destination for irregular migration, especially from Ethiopia, which has also been plagued by ethnic violence, notwithstanding the civil war that has raged there since 2014.
In an attempt to eventually reach oil-rich Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, thousands of people brave the so-called “Eastern Route” every year, which crosses the Red Sea from Djibouti to Yemen.
Last year, at least 558 people died on the Red Sea route, 462 of whom died in boat accidents, according to the IOM.