61 Somalis die at sea after being left adrift

[Fyr]

61 Somalis die at sea after being left adrift

Reuters

September 13, 2005

DJIBOUTI: At least 61 Somalis died after people-smugglers left them helpless for 20 days in a faulty boat during a crossing to Yemen.

 

A Danish ship sailing nearby saw the stranded boat and managed to rescue 39 people, including a woman who gave birth at sea, and took them to Djibouti.

 

"We were 100 when we left (the Somalia port of) Bosasso heading to Yemen but after three days we finished most of our food," said survivor Adan Roble yesterday.

 

"We ate everything we could find, including sea shrubs but 61 of us died of hunger while others committed suicide by plunging into the sea."

 

News of their ordeal followed the rescue by Italian authorities of 143 mostly Eritreans making the crossing from North Africa. At least 11 died in the crossing.

 

Last week 45 Africans, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, drowned when armed smugglers forced them overboard during a crossing to Yemen.

 

The UN refugee agency has said increasing numbers of African migrants are likely to risk their lives sailing to Yemen in the coming months due to the start of calmer weather in the Gulf of Aden.

 

During the 20-day ordeal, only the strongest and the most vulnerable survived. "We were forced to rob the women and other frail travellers of their little food in order to survive," said Mohamed Aw-Said. "But we all shared whatever we got with a woman who gave birth to a baby boy."

 

Somalis fleeing violence in their homeland and Ethiopians in search of better economic prospects often attempt the 300km crossing to Yemen. Hundreds have drowned, often in overloaded and rickety vessels run by smugglers.

[Animal Farm]

"We ate everything we could find, including sea shrubs but 61 of us died of hunger while others committed suicide by plunging into the sea."

That's just horrible

 

I remember last year reading an article from the NY Times interviewing Somalis in Italy and their struggles of getting there --- but many of them sleep in abandon buildings, they get sent back – one was asked why he risked his life to come all this way, he said in a simple sentence that captured it all he said a random bullet can kill him in Somalia.