NAIROBI | Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:11pm EST
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that it was the worst such incident in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011 when 57 Somali migrants perished while attempting to reach Yemen. (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Jon Hemming)
NAIROBI | Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:23pm EST
NAIROBI Dec 20 (Reuters) - Fifty-five people were drowned, or missing and presumed to have drowned, after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that the accident on Tuesday was the worst such incident in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011 when 57 Somali migrants perished attempting to reach Yemen.
The U.N. agency quoted five of the survivors, all young Somali men, as saying the boat was overcrowded and ran into trouble almost immediately after leaving the port of Bosasso in the northern Somali breakaway region of Puntland.
It capsized just 15 minutes into its journey, spilling all 60 passengers into the sea. Those on board were Ethiopians and Somalis, the UNHCR said.
So far, 23 bodies have been recovered, including those of 14 women, eight men, and a boy said to be less than four years of age. Five of the dead are confirmed to have been Ethiopians. The 32 remaining passengers are presumed to have drowned.
"Without doubt, the Gulf of Aden is now the deadliest route for people fleeing conflict, violence and human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa," said UNHCR Representative for Somalia, Bruno Geddo.
African migrants often use unseaworthy boats to try to reach Yemen, seen as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West. Hundreds of migrants have perished at sea.
The UNHCR estimates that 100,000 people have crossed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden this year, despite warnings about the risks.
The latest deaths bring the number of those drowned or missing in the waters between Somalia and Yemen this year to 95, the UNHCR said. (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Jon Hemming)
* Soldiers had been guarding impounded vessel
* Ship headed to unknown destination
NAIROBI Dec 19 (Reuters) - A dozen soldiers guarding a North Korean ship impounded in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region for maritime violations have hijacked the vessel and its 33 crew, government and naval sources said on Wednesday.
Puntland had been the epicentre of Somali piracy but the use of armed guards on ships and a concerted crackdown by international navies has seen the number of successful pirate hijackings fall in 2012.
MV Daesan, a North Korean ship ferrying cement to Somali capital Mogadishu, was impounded and fined last month by Puntland authorities who accused it of ditching its cargo off Somalia's coast.
The ship dumped the cement into the ocean because it had been rejected by importers in Mogadishu, who claimed that the cement was wet and unusable, authorities said.
However, a government source told Reuters a dozen soldiers guarding the vessel hijacked it on Tuesday night. It was now at sea, destination unknown.
A naval source at the port of Bosasso, near where the ship lay seized over the past month, confirmed the claim.
"The government is preparing troops to rescue the ship," the naval source said.
In 2005, Puntland's naval forces hijacked a Thai fishing boat and demanded an $800,000 ransom for its release, according to Jay Bahadur, a Canadian author of a book on Somali piracy.
About 136 hostages taken in the Indian Ocean off Somalia are still being held captive, but the number of hijackings of ships has dropped to seven in the first 11 months of this year compared to 24 in the whole of 2011. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by James Macharia and Michael Roddy)
