Migrant Boat Capsizes Near Yemen, Migration Agency Declares 13 Dead
The United Nations migration agency announced on Sunday that they had recovered the bodies of at least thirteen people after a ship carrying Ethiopian migrants sank off the coast of Yemen last week.
Along with the thirteen confirmed deceased passengers, eleven of whom are men and two women, another 14 people, including the Yemeni captain and his assistant, are still missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) report.
The ship was allegedly sailing off near Yemen’s Taiz governorate in the southwest when it capsized; it remains unclear what exactly caused the vessel to sink.
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25 out of the 27 known crew and passengers aboard the ship were Ethiopian nationals, the IOM said.
The recovered bodies were found along the shores of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a major global shipping lane often frequented by the Horn of Africa and East African migrants attempting to reach the oil-rich Gulf states.
Since 2014, the IOM has reported 2,082 migrant fatalities and disappearances along the route.
Over the last year, the strait’s economic and strategic importance has emerged as a major geopolitical pressure point due to regular attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The Hamas-aligned militia has launched drone, missile, and naval strikes on more than 80 vessels since the war in Gaza erupted in October of last year.
