(MENAFN) 30 African migrants and refugees have been drowned after their boat overturned off the coast of Yemen earlier this week, the U.N. reported.
The boat, carrying 152 Somalis and Ethiopians, was sailing from al-Buraiqa coast near the Yemeni city of Aden toward Djibouti, U.N. Migration Agency said.
The IOM says the vessel is assumed to have been operated by "unscrupulous smugglers" who tried "to extort more money" from the migrants. Survivors reported gunfire as the boat capsized.
Yemen has been involved in a civil war pitting a Saudi-led coalition backing an internationally recognized government against Iran-backed Shiite rebels since March 2015.
The IOM says Yemen's war has put refugees and migrants to risk of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest and trafficking.
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