Dozens dead after boat with more than 150 people on board capsizes off Yemen

Dozens killed as vessel carrying over 150 people capsizes off Yemen’s coast

A vessel overturned in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen’s coast, killing 76 people and leaving 74 unaccounted for, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported. Yemeni security forces recovered 76 bodies and rescued 32 survivors from what IOM’s Yemen director, Abdusattor Esoev, described as one of the deadliest shipwrecks off Yemen this year. The agency said 157 individuals had been aboard.

Esoev explained the boat was traversing a notorious smuggling corridor en route to Abyan governorate in southern Yemen—a frequent landing point for Africans seeking onward passage to wealthy Gulf states. Those pulled from the water were taken to the nearby port city of Aden, a security official said.

Despite a civil war raging since 2014, impoverished Yemen remains a key transit hub for irregular migration, especially from conflict-torn Ethiopia. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the Pope was “deeply saddened by the devastating loss of life.” Each year, thousands attempt the so-called “eastern route” from Djibouti across the Red Sea toward Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Last year, the IOM recorded at least 558 deaths on the Red Sea corridor, 462 of them in maritime accidents. Ayla Bonfiglio of the Mixed Migration Centre told AFP that “this route is predominantly controlled by traffickers and human trafficking networks… Refugees and migrants have no alternative but to engage their services.” She added that although migrants know the dangers, “without legal avenues and with families dependent on remittances from Saudi Arabia or the UAE, many feel they have no choice.”

In June, eight people died after smugglers forced 150 migrants off a vessel in the Red Sea, the IOM said. The Abyan administration reported security forces were still recovering a “significant” number of bodies. Migrants on this path must navigate the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea used by both commercial shipping and trafficking networks.

Arriving in Yemen—the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula—does not end migrants’ dangers. The IOM estimates tens of thousands become stranded there, facing detention, abuse and exploitation. In April, over 60 people were killed in an attack on a migrant detention center in Yemen, which Houthi rebels blamed on the United States.

Wealthy Gulf monarchies host large populations of workers from South Asia and Africa. In response to the disaster, the Abyan Security Directorate launched a major search-and-rescue operation, recovering bodies scattered along a wide stretch of coastline, its statement said.