Mass migrant murder in Gulf of Aden
- 2008-01-23
-
Administrator - Hits: 569
ADEN 23 January – While Coalition warships monitoring smuggling routes have barely disappeared over the horizon, at least 114 people were murdered by human traffickers in the Gulf of Aden last weekend, a spokesman for the UNHCR has revealed.
Traffickers smuggling Somali migrants across the Gulf of Aden and were approaching the Yemeni coastline when they saw lights ashore. Fearing capture by Yemen's coast guard, they ordered passengers to jump overboard. "Those who resisted were beaten with sticks and stabbed," a UNHCR spokesman said. A large wave then caused the boat to capsize, killing everyone still onboard. The mass murder was later nofollowed by the drowning of 10 women and two children when their boat, which was experiencing engine trouble, capsized. The migrants had been part of a larger group of 29 Somalis who had been at sea for four days. The survivors reported that another four children had died in front of their parents from exposure and a lack of food and water. The survivors said they were fleeing instability and artillery fire in Somalia. They paid $150 each for passage. This year's Gulf of Aden migrant toll so far stands at 2,452 people arriving in Yemen with 157 missing or dead. Coalition maritime forces have recently held patrols along with Yemeni coast guards, of the smuggling routes across the Gulf (see separate Sentinel story today).
Keywords: warship disappeared, Mass migrant murder
