Sixty-eight African migrants killed as boat capsises off Yemen

A ship capsized on Sunday (August 3, 2025) in waters off Yemen’s coast, leaving 68 African migrants useless and 74 others lacking, the U.N.’s migration company stated.

The tragedy was the newest in a collection of shipwrecks off Yemen which have killed a whole bunch of African migrants fleeing battle and poverty in hopes of reaching the rich Gulf Arab international locations.

The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank within the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen stated.

He stated the our bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore within the district of Khanfar, and 14 others have been discovered useless and brought to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen’s southern coast.

Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the remainder have been lacking and presumed useless, Mr. Esoev stated.

In an announcement, the Abyan safety directorate described a large search-and-rescue operation given the massive variety of useless and lacking migrants. It stated many useless our bodies have been discovered scattered throughout a large space of the shore.

Despite greater than a decade of civil warfare, Yemen is a serious route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa making an attempt to succeed in the Gulf Arab international locations for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on usually harmful, overcrowded boats throughout the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.

Hundreds of migrants have died or gone lacking in shipwrecks off Yemen in current months, together with in March when two migrants died and 186 others have been lacking after 4 boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, in line with the IOM.

More than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, down from 97,200 in 2023, in all probability due to higher patrolling of the waters, in line with an IOM report in March.