55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast

World December 21, 2012

55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast

Photo: AP And made available Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, people examine the bodies of some of those who drowned in a boat sinking late Tuesday night, in a mortuary in the town of Bosasso, Somalia. The U.N. refugee agency says 55 people have drowned or are missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast late Tuesday, representing the biggest loss of life in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants drowned while attempting to reach Yemen.

Show more Show less

More Photos (1 of )

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says 55 people have drowned or are missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast.

UNHCR said the incident late Tuesday represented the biggest loss of life in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants drowned while attempting to reach Yemen. The U.N. says five people survived Tuesday's accident. The survivors said the boat was overcrowded and capsized 15 minutes into its journey. Twenty-three bodies were recovered; the rest are presumed to have drowned.

Bruno Geddo, the UNCHR representative for Somalia, said the deaths are a reminder of the risks Somalis take to flee their country. Geddo said the Gulf of Aden is the deadliest route for people fleeing conflict and rights abuses in the Horn of Africa.

Subjects
Locations
- Somalia,
- East Africa,
- Kenya,
- Yemen

Related Headlines

Military plane crashes in Yemen, kills 10
A Yemeni military plane crashed Tuesday into a residential neighborhood in the country's capital, Sanaa, killing 10 people and injuring 17, the defense ministry and security ...
Yemeni military plane crashes, killing 10
A Yemeni military plane crashed early Wednesday during training over the capital, Sanaa, killing all 10 people on board, security officials said. The Russian-made Antonov ...
'Off the charts': 133k Somalia famine child deaths
A decision by extremist Islamic militants to ban delivery of food aid and a "normalization of crisis" that numbed international donors to unfolding disaster made south-central ...