68 dead in migrant shipwreck off Yemen, dozens missing

"At this stage, 68 people on board have been killed, but only 12 of the 157 passengers have been rescued. The fate of the missing remains unknown," Abdusattor Esoev, IOM chief of mission in Yemen, told AFP.

A previous report from security sources in the southern province of Abyan on Sunday said at least 27 people were killed in the sinking of the boat heading towards the southern coast of Yemen, where "smuggling boats regularly arrive."

The boat was carrying mainly Ethiopian migrants, according to the Abyan governorate security directorate, which announced on Sunday "a vast operation to recover the bodies of a large number" of people who had drowned.

Last month, at least eight people died and 22 were missing after smugglers forced migrants into the Red Sea, according to the UN migration agency.

Despite the conflict that has ravaged Yemen since 2014, irregular migration continues through this impoverished country on the Arabian Peninsula, particularly from Ethiopia, itself shaken by ethnic violence. Every year, thousands of African migrants take the "eastern route," crossing the Red Sea from Djibouti to Yemen, hoping to then reach the oil-rich Gulf states.