11 Somalis drown in boat tragedy: UNHCR

Mohamed Abdi

Geneva (Alshahid)-A boat carrying Somalis fleeing violence in their homeland capsized this week in the Gulf of Aden, leaving at least 11 people dead and another 34 missing, a U.N. agency said.

The vessel carrying 58 people, and captained by three smugglers, had set off from Somalia destined for Yemen last Saturday, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday in a news release.

Survivors say that the smugglers forced 22 people overboard after the engine failed.

The rest of the passengers were adrift for five days before the boat capsized on Wednesday in rough seas and bad weather.

Thirteen survivors washed up in the northern region of Puntland and 11 bodies have been recovered so far. Many survivors are suffering from skin burns caused by fuel in the boat.

“UNHCR is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life. Authorities in the Somali port town of Bossaso are investigating the incident and we hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice,” the agency’s spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva.

In 2011, more than 103,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from the Horn of Africa made the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen, fleeing violence, human rights abuses and poverty, according to UNHCR.

Among those who made the crossing last year, more than 130 are known to have drowned, and those who reached Yemen’s shores arrived in desperate conditions, suffering from dehydration and malnourishment.