After smugglers reportedly forced them off two boats in the Red Sea off the coast of Djibouti earlier this week, rescuers were looking for the remaining 111 African migrants on Thursday, according to the Djiboutian coastguard.
There are reportedly at least 48 drowning victims. The International Organisation for Migration reports that 310 people were aboard the boats when they sailed from Yemen across the Arabian Peninsula’s Red Sea.
Why the migrants were compelled to abandon the boats while at sea is unknown.
IOM later withdrew its initial claim that both of the boats carrying the migrants had capsized and instead claimed that people had been forced off the boats by smugglers and told to swim.
The tragedy happened roughly 150 meters (500 feet) from a beach in the Khor Angar region in the northwest of the country of East Africa, according to Djibouti’s coast guard. 115 survivors, it stated, had been saved.
Moktar Abdi, a member of the Djibouti coast guard, told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday that the search was now focusing on open waters and nearby beaches. He promised an update on the number of bodies found later from the Coast Guard.
On Wednesday, the IOM said 111 people were still missing, while the Djibouti coastguard put the figure at 61.
“A woman drowned, but her four-month-old baby survived, as did 98 others from the first boat,” said the UN agency, which is helping with search and rescue efforts.
Every year, thousands of migrants from countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia attempt illegal emigration in search of a better life in Europe. Smugglers fill ships with desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe.
Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab states entered the conflict the following year to support government forces.
In recent years, the war has largely bogged down along established front lines, while efforts to find a negotiated solution have stalled.