50 African Teen Migrants “Deliberately Drowned” Off Yemen: IOM

Remains of 29 African migrants were found buried on the beach in Yemen’s Shabwa province along the Gulf of Aden.

Somali refugees who survived an attack on a boat off Yemen’s coast in the Red Sea. Image used for representation.

(Photo: Reuters)

Roughly 50 teenage Somali and Ethiopian migrants were “deliberately drowned” early on Wednesday by a smuggler who forced 120 passengers into the sea off Yemen's coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea, when he saw some ‘authority types’ near the coast.

Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen Chief of Mission

IOM staff found the remains of 29 African migrants buried on the beach in Yemen's Shabwa province along the Gulf of Aden, while another 22 were missing after the incident, according to the survivors.

“They were all quite young, the average age was around 16,” IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon said.

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