More Somalis risk perilous crossing to Yemen to flee Islamists

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2006

GENEVA (AFP) — Hundreds of Somalis risking the perilous crossing across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen say they are fleeing the policies of Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamist movement, the UN refugee agency has said. "Over the past eight days, nearly 1,500 Somalis and Ethiopians arrived in 12 smugglers' boats.

At least 18 people aboard those boats died and 17 are missing," Ron Redmond, a spokesman of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. More than 22,000 people have undertaken the voyage so far this year, with at least 335 fatalities and over 150 reported missing, Redmond told journalists. Most new arrivals told UNHCR teams on the ground that they were from southern and central Somalia, where the Islamists have has been in control since earlier this...