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The death toll of the sinking of two boats carrying migrants to Yemen from Djibouti has been raised to 52 Thursday, said the UN agency for migration, calling on regional leaders to take action to put an end to such tragedies.
Rescuers working in the Obock region, in northeastern Djibouti, continued to recover bodies on the Horn of Africa coast after the capsizing of the two boats earlier this week.
The sinking of the ships, which according to the survivors were carrying Ethiopians, is the latest tragedy on the risky road taken by African migrants looking for a job in the Middle East.
"No human being deserves such a situation.It is incumbent on the actors and leaders of the region to prevent such tragedies from killing innocent people," said AFP Lalini Veerbadamy, head of the mission to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti.
The figure of 52 is up from a previous record of 43 Wednesday.
Veerbadamy also revised down the number of survivors from 16 to 15, citing an error in the IOM count.
The number of migrants affected remains unclear, but IOM estimates that one of the two boats carried 130 people.
Addressing AFP, Id Mohamed, a 15-year-old survivor, said he had been loaded onto a boat with about 80 other Ethiopians.
"All I remember is that the captain said that the engine had a serious problem and that the boat was going to sink in. After that, I do not know what happened," he said. he said, adding that he had been removed from the water by the coastguard Djiboutian.
"It's the worst thing I've ever lived, even though I did not spend a lot of time at sea. I thank God for saving me," he said. he declared.
Located on the other side of Bab el-Mandeb Strait, close to Somalia and Ethiopia, an unstable region, Djibouti has become, in recent years, a transit place for migrants seeking asylum. work in the Arabian Peninsula, with the Obock region as a hub.
This migration continues even as Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
According to UN officials, 80% of the population – 24 million inhabitants – need help and nearly 10 million are only a few steps away from famine, many Yemenis fleeing to Djibouti.
At the same time, migrants pbading through Yemen on foot are victims of abuse and abduction, the UN said.
The flow continues: in 2017, 100,000 migrants arrived in Yemen.
The sea crossing itself has repeatedly proved perilous.
Last year, at least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants reportedly fled to Djibouti when their boat capsized off Yemen, when shots were fired at the pbadengers.
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