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Rescue operations are ongoing to find dozens more missing, local authorities say.
At least 54 African refugees and migrants have died and dozens remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, according to health authorities in Abyan governorate in the south of the country.
Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the health office in Zanzibar, said on Sunday that rescue teams had recovered 54 bodies from the beaches there and surrounding areas, while 12 survivors were transferred to Shaqra Hospital.
The boat carrying around 150 people, mostly from Ethiopia, capsized in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Shaqra, in the Abyan governorate, due to strong winds on Saturday evening.
Bajamil noted that authorities were making arrangements to bury the victims in an area near the city, while search operations continued amid difficult conditions.
The waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa are a common but perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in both directions. The area saw a spike in Yemenis fleeing the country after the civil war broke out in 2014.
Houthi rebels and government forces reached a truce deal in April 2022 that has resulted in a decrease in violence and the slight easing of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Meanwhile, some of those fleeing conflict in Africa, particularly in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have sought to travel through the country to the more prosperous Gulf countries. The route remains one of the “busiest and most perilous” migration routes in the world, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).
To reach Yemen, people are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
According to the IOM, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a significant drop from the previous year’s total of 97,200.
The decreased numbers come amid increased patrols of the waters, according to an IOM report released in May.
This is a deadly route that has killed hundreds over the past two years. According to the IOM, 558 people died along the route last year.
Over the past decade, at least 2,082 people have disappeared along the route, including 693 known to have drowned, according to the IOM. Yemen currently houses around 380,000 refugees and migrants.