AT LEAST 68 people drowned when their boat capsized off the Yemen coast on Sunday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said today.

The number could more than double, with another 74 missing. IOM Yemen chief Abdusattor Esoev said the vessel had been carrying 154 people from Ethiopia, and only 12 had been rescued alive.

In a statement, Yemen’s Abyan province security directorate described a massive search-and-rescue operation. It said many dead bodies were found scattered across a wide area of the shore.

The civil war in South Sudan has spilled over the Ethiopian border, with thousands of displaced people fleeing across it. Besides fleeing violence, many Africans try to cross to Yemen en route to the wealthy Gulf kingdoms to seek work.

Hundreds of migrants have died or gone missing in shipwrecks off Yemen in recent months, including in March when two people died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, according to the IOM.