...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...has risen to 58, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.
The overloaded boats went down on Tuesday about half an hour after setting sail from Djibouti's northeastern coastline.
Speaking to AFP, Lalini Veerassamy, IOM's chief of mission in the tiny Horn of Africa nation, said the number of people known to have died in the tragedy had risen to 58, up from 52 a day earlier.
It was the latest incident to occur on the risky sea crossing, often taken by African
Only around 15 people were pulled to safety, most of them Æthiopians.
It was not immediately clear how many people were affected but the IOM said it believed one of the two boats was carrying up to 130 people. Most of those on board were believed to be Æthiopians.
On Wednesday, an AFP journalist saw bodies in the water and others strewn across the beach at Obock, a port town down the coast from Godaria from where the two boats had set sail.
The Bab el-Mandeb strait which separates Djibouti from Yemen is unusual in that it sees
Indicating neither side has a clue