Yemen shipwreck: 68 dead as boat carrying Ethiopian migrants capsizes; 74 still unaccounted for

At least 68 Ethiopian migrants died and 74 others remain missing after their boat capsized off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, according to the United Nations’ migration agency. The boat, carrying 154 migrants, went down near Yemen’s Abyan province, according to Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen. He said that 12 migrants survived the incident, reported AP.The bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 more were recovered from another location and taken to a hospital morgue, Esoev said.Despite enduring over a decade of civil war, Yemen remains a key transit route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa seeking work in Gulf Arab nations. Smugglers frequently transport them across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden in overcrowded, unsafe vessels. In recent months, hundreds of migrants have died or disappeared in shipwrecks along this route. In one incident in March, four boats capsized off the coasts of Yemen and Djibouti, leaving two confirmed dead and 186 others missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).