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ADEN, Yemen Apr 23, 2009 –
Thirty-five people drowned after one of two smugglers' boats carrying
more than 220 passengers across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized
Wednesday off the coast of Yemen's Abyan region, some 250 km east of
Aden.
The capsized boat, which was carrying about 117 people, departed Monday
from the vicinity of Bossasso in Somalia.
By midday Thursday, 35 bodies had been recovered by UNHCR's partner
agency, the Society of Human Solidarity (SHS). The remaining passengers
are believed to have made it to shore, as did some 105 people on the
second vessel.
A total of 165 people were later transferred to UNHCR's Ahwar Reception
Centre. The survivors included an 8-year-old Somali boy whose mother
drowned, SHS reported. Survivors were provided with water and food
before being transferred to Ahwar for further assistance and
registration.
So far this year, 387 boats and 19,622 people have arrived in Yemen
after making the perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn
of Africa. A total of 131 people have died and at least 66 others are
presumed missing at sea.
Those who make the crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil
war, political instability, poverty and famine in Somalia and the Horn
of Africa
Source: UNHCR
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