MSF Team Finds 35 Somali and Ethiopian Dead on Yemen Coast

April, 23, 2009, Awhar, Yemen—A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) mobile team found 35 Somalis and Ethiopians dead on the Yemen coast on the night of April 22. The dead were among a group who had departed two days prior from the port of Bosasso, Somalia, fleeing insecurity or extreme poverty on a smuggler’s boat. They were travelling in extremely harsh conditions across the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen.

Survivors who arrived on the coast in Abyan province told the MSF team that, for reasons that remain unclear, the boat capsized as it began to approach the shore during the night. Many refugees were travelling in the dark, airless hull of the boat, which was designed to store fish....Read more