SANAA, 24 December 2007 (IRIN) - Dozens of African migrants, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, have died over the past few days while trying to reach Yemen's southern shores by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The agency said over 100 Africans had drowned , and another 95 had gone missing and were feared dead in two separate incidents.

Mira Sabonji, a protection officer at the UNHCR office in Aden, told IRIN that a boat carrying 270 African migrants collided with a rock on 16 December off the Yemeni coast, killing dozens of the passengers. The incident took place in Boroum, a rocky area off the coast of Hadhramaut Province.

"Ninety two passengers drowned and another 95 went missing. All children on the boat died. It is difficult to give their exact number. A lot of women also died. An injured female passenger was brought to al-Mukalla city for medical treatment," Sabonji said.

Survivors were brought to the UNHCR reception camp in Mayfaa, in the southern province of Shabwa.

15 December incident

The UNHCR official said another incident claimed the lives of 58 African migrants. "On 15 December a boat carrying 148 African migrants, both Somalis and Ethiopians, arrived off the Yemeni coast. But the boat capsized near Arqa in the southern province of Shabwa. Fifty eight passengers drowned," she said.

The dead were buried on the same day, after the UNHCR obtained permission from the local authorities, Sabonji said, adding that some of the survivors were slightly injured.

MSF assistance

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international humanitarian aid agency, said its team in Yemen found the survivors from the 15 December incident and assisted them. "When the MSF team arrived in the morning, they first found a group of 49 survivors, 10 of them women, on the shore. Dozens of bodies had been washed up over a 5km stretch of coast. The team counted 56 bodies, over half of whom were women, as well as five children, some very small, MSF said in a statement.

According to MSF, at least four passengers died during the trip due to treacherous conditions on board. Survivors told the MSF team in Yemen that their boat arrived at midnight and stopped well away from the shoreline.

The MSF further said that its team applied 30 dressings and distributed food and other relief items. MSF started its project in September 2007, providing medical and humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants arriving on the Yemeni coast of Abyan and Shabwa governorates. So far, the organisation has assisted over 3,000 African migrants who have arrived in the two provinces.

So far this year, over 28,000 people have made the perilous voyage from the port city of Bossaso, in northeastern Somalia, to Yemen, the UNHCR said, adding more than 1,400 had died - killed by smugglers or drowned at sea.

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