A boat capsized in waters off Yemen’s coast, leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the UN’s migration agency said.

The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank off the southern province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen, told The Associated Press.

He said the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital mortuary in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen’s southern coast.

Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 60,000 irregular migrants have arrived in Yemen in 2024 alone.

Yemen is a common destination for hundreds of irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia and Ethiopia, who undertake this perilous journey in hopes of reaching Gulf countries to seek better living conditions.