25 Africa migrants drown off Yemen coast

Twenty-five African migrants have drowned and more than 150 others went missing yesterday when their boat capsized off the coast of southern Yemen, Anadolu reported.

The agency quoted Ali Youssef Al-Dabbash, a worker in the Kharaz camp for African refugees as saying that Yemeni fishermen have recovered the bodies of 25 African migrants off the coast of Ras Al-Ara and Al-Mudaraba district on the Red Sea, west of Lahj governorate.

Al-Dabbash said the boat, which belonged to a resident of Al-Kadha area in the Makha district, west of Taiz governorate, had been carrying more than 200 irregular migrants, in addition to its four Yemeni owners, before it capsized.

READ: Ethiopia migrants head home after life in Yemen becomes unbearable

Last October, two similar incidents claimed the lives of more than 50 African migrants.

Since the start of the war in Yemen, the number of irregular migrants who come from the Horn of Africa has doubled.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), between 80,000 and 100,000 irregular migrants arrive in Yemen annually, escaping wars, conflicts, and extremely deteriorating economic conditions in their countries, before crossing into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.