Geneva - Some 180 Somalis, apparently fleeing economic problems at home are believed to have drowned off Yemen at the weekend, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said yesterday.
So far in March, at least 220 Somali refugees were believed to have drowned, some of them after being dumped in waters off the Yemeni coast and left to swim ashore. Many, usually women and children, failed to make it. Two survivors of the latest incident said they left the northern Somali part of Bosaso on a crowded vessel which later sunk on the high seas.