Over 100 Somalis, Ethiopians drown off Yemen: UN

Geneva, Feb 17: More than 100 Somali and Ethiopian migrants drowned when a smugglers' boat capsized off Yemen earlier this week and 130 more are missing after they were forced off a second ship, the United Nations said.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday said 107 bodies had already been buried from Monday's sinking, but that 133 people were still unaccounted for, although many of them may have reached land safely.

The missing were mostly from a second boat whose crew forced them to jump into the sea after the first craft went down, the UNHCR said. Two other vessels made it to shore with 235 people aboard.

It was the second mass drowning of African migrants this month in the Gulf of Aden. Fifteen people died after traffickers forced hundreds of passengers off two boats far from the Yemeni coast in early February.

Smugglers, usually Somali, often drop migrants in deep waters because the Yemeni authorities have increased sea patrols closer to shore.

Some 27,000 people made the perilous journey from Somalia last year, fleeing battles in the volatile Horn of Africa nation between the Ethiopian army and an Islamist movement.

Islamist forces ran most of south Somalia for six months until they were ousted in an offensive by the government and Ethiopia over the New Year.

Reuters