75 African refugees drown off Yemen coast

SANAA: Around 75 Ethiopian and Somali refugees drowned on Sunday when smugglers taking them to Yemen forced them to jump into the sea. Scores more were missing, a UN refugee agency official said.

Forty-five bodies were recovered on the shores of Shabwa province, the official with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said. Sources said only 50 of the refugees aboard four boats carrying 369 Africans – 203 Ethiopians and 166 Somalis - made it to a UNHCR centre in the Mayfaah region of Shabwa, 400 kilometers east of the port of Aden. The rest were missing, they said. Of the 75 dead, 47 were Ethiopians and 28 Somalis.

Every year, thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians flee poverty and violence and make their way to Yemen, where many seek to head for Europe. afp

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