GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- At least 107 bodies have been found along the Yemen coastline after a boat smuggling migrants from Somalia to Yemen capsized.
The capsized boat was carrying 120 Somalis and Ethiopians, Ron Redmond, Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman, said Friday in Geneva. A second smuggling vessel, also carrying 120 people, forced all its passengers into the sea when the first boat capsized Monday. The second vessel picked up smugglers from the capsized boat and headed back into the Gulf of Aden, leaving 240 people in the high seas.
Migrants were in the water for several hours before the Yemen military came to their rescue, Redmond said. The victims were drifting at least a third of a mile off the coast, which made rescue efforts very difficult.
Monday's event was one the deadliest single incidents in the exodus that has brought more than 27,000 people across the Gulf of Aden in the past year, said UNHCR. Some 330 migrants have died crossing into Yemen and another 300 are still missing.
"Every year, thousands of people cross the Gulf of Aden, the Mediterranean and other waters, fleeing persecution in their own countries or searching for better economic opportunities," said Redmond.
The Somalis in the capsized boat fled their homes during recent hostilities between government forces and Islamic groups, said UNHCR. Somalia has not had a functioning government since toppling of the Mohammad Siad Barre regime in 1991.
Many more Somalis are leaving the capital, Mogadishu, to escape the mortar and rocket attacks there, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday.
Some 650 families have set up temporary shelters outside of the capital, while another 175 people have moved from Mogadishu to the inland city of Baidoa, according to OCHA.
