11 women, 3 children among 16 Yemenis drowned in 2 Red Sea boat accidents

Monitoring Desk

AL-MUKALLA: At least 16 Yemenis, including 11 women and three children, died and 12 were rescued after two boats overturned in separate incidents off Yemen’s western shores, officials and residents reported on Wednesday.

Two Yemeni fishermen died and two others survived when their boat sank in high winds off Khokha on Wednesday morning, a local fisherman told Arab News.

The incident came after a boat — believed to be overloaded — carrying at least 25 people sank on Monday afternoon near Kamaran Island, resulting in at least 14 deaths.

The boat involved in the Monday tragedy had been ferrying passengers from the coastal village of Khuba, in the western province of Hodeidah, to a wedding on Kamaran when a strong gust of wind reportedly capsized it.

A Khuba resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told Arab News: “The only survivors were men who could swim, while all the women and three children died.”

They said locals had received news that the boat had gone missing five hours after it had left and immediately raised the alarm.

“The journey from Khuba to Kamaran generally takes an hour-and-a-half, and no such tragedy has occurred since the 1980s,” the resident added.

Local coastguards and fishermen located the missing boat and started recovering bodies from the sea early on Tuesday morning.

A statement by the Houthi authorities, who control the island and Khuba, said that 11 women and three children were discovered dead in the water on Tuesday, while 11 others, including a toddler, were saved.