More than 80 Somali refugees are feared dead after their boat caught fire and sank off Yemen earlier this month, a UN refugee official said today.
Mr James Alemi, local official for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said a nearby vessel rescued 23 Somalis and Ethiopians from the boat which was carrying up to 120 people on January 4th in the Gulf of Aden.
"According to those rescued, there was an explosion in the engine room which caused a fire. It seems some people panicked and jumped from the overloaded boat," he said, adding that no trace has been found of the missing.
Yemen, a poor Arab state, is among the main destinations for Somalis fleeing their war-torn Horn of Africa nation.
Somalia descended into chaos in 1991 following the ousting of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, and is now split between rival warlords and a transitional government in the capital Mogadishu.
Nabeel Moussa, another UNHCR official, said the Yemen authorities have registered 43,000 Somali refugees who entered Yemen illegally, and thousands more are yet to be registered.