WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - At least 49 migrants have been killed, including women and children, and a another 140 are missing after the boat carrying them capsized off the coast of Yemen, the UN International Organization for Migration has reported.
Some 260 people were abroad the Yemen-bound vessel that had departed from Bossaso, in northeast Somalia, in the early hours of Sunday.
Yemen is about 330 kilometers away from Somalia.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing despite significant challenges due to a shortage of operational patrol boats, a situation further complicated by the ongoing conflict, IOM said.
Seventy-one people, including six children, have been rescued and are being supported by the UN agency.
The latest tragedy comes on the back of two separate shipwrecks on the same route along the coast of Djibouti, claiming the lives at least 62 migrants.
There has been a sharp rise in migrants travelling from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, spurred by political and economic instability, alongside severe droughts and other extreme weather events in countries like Ethiopia and Somalia.
Despite the ongoing conflict in Yemen, thousands of migrants continue to transit through the country in hopes of reaching Saudi Arabia and neighbouring nations.
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