A tragic boat capsizing off the coast of Yemen on Sunday resulted in the loss of 68 African migrants’ lives, with 74 others reported missing, as confirmed by the United Nations migration agency. This incident marks yet another in a series of recent shipwrecks in the region, where numerous migrants from Africa, fleeing conflict and poverty, seek to reach the affluent Gulf Arab states.
The vessel, carrying 154 Ethiopian migrants, sank in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen’s southern province of Abyan. Abdusattor Esoev, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, reported that 54 bodies were recovered along the shore in the Khanfar district, while 14 others were found dead elsewhere and transported to a morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital. Only 12 individuals survived the incident, with the rest presumed deceased.
In response to this catastrophe, local authorities launched a large-scale search and rescue operation, highlighting the widespread nature of the tragedy, as many bodies were discovered scattered across a broad area of the coastline.
Yemen, despite its ongoing civil war, remains a significant transit point for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa aiming to reach Gulf nations for employment opportunities. Many of them risk perilous journeys aboard overcrowded vessels operated by smugglers across the treacherous waters of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Sadly, numerous migrants have died or gone missing during these crossings in recent months, including a harrowing incident in March that left two dead and 186 missing due to multiple capsized boats in the vicinity of Yemen and Djibouti.
According to an IOM report from March, over 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, a decline from 97,200 in 2023, attributed to increased naval patrols aiming to curb such dangerous journeys. The ongoing peril faced by these individuals, combined with Yemen’s complex socio-political landscape, sheds light on the desperate circumstances that drive them to undertake such hazardous migrations.