More than 50 people are missing and just two have been rescued after a cargo vessel sank off Yemen’s Socotra island, authorities said on Wednesday.
The government has issued an SOS to merchant vessels and warships in the area to help search for any survivors from the ship that went missing on Friday, Fisheries Minister Fahd Kavieen said.
Those on board were returning from the mainland to the remote Indian Ocean island which is closer to the coast of Africa than it is to the Arabian Peninsula, Kavieen said.
The exact number on board was unclear but women and children were among them.
Two people were rescued by a passing Austrian vessel and an Australian ship, the government’s sabanew.com website said.
It did not specify whether the vessels were merchant ships or part of an international flotilla that has been fighting piracy off the Somali coast.
The Yemeni mainland has been ravaged by conflict for the past two years disrupting transport links to the archipelago.
The port of Mukalla, from which the freighter departed for the islands, was controlled by Al-Qaeda for a full year until April.
Air links to Socotra from elsewhere in Yemen have been virtually halted as the beleaguered government has battled rebels who still control the capital.
There are no regular passenger ferries either, forcing islanders to seek berths on the occasional cargo vessel.
Through the devastating conflict that has pitted forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Shiite rebels and their allies, Socotra has remained loyal to his Saudi-backed government throughout and has been spared the fighting.
The Mukalla-based governor of Hadramawt province, Major General Ahmed bin Breik, said a call for help had been issued to the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi’s government.
The ship sank northwest of Socotra, which has been hit by rare tropical cyclones in recent months.
The island has enormous tourism potential which has never been realized because of the repeated conflicts that have gripped Yemen.
The island’s isolation from the landmasses of both Africa and Asia has led to the evolution of unique plant life, much of it found nowhere else on earth.
Among the most renowned is the dragon’s blood tree, a bizarre umbrella-shaped species that earned its name from its blood-red sap which was much sought after as a dye in the ancient world.
The sea area around Socotra lies at the exit of a vital shipping lane from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean.
It was long plagued by pirates operating from the lawless coast of nearby Somalia but the deployment of warships by all of the world’s major powers has led to a sharp reduction in ship seizures in recent years.
The persistent unrest in the Horn of Africa has meant that the waters around Socotra see a steady flow of Ethiopian and Somali migrants ready to risk the perilous sea crossing in the hope of reaching Yemen’s energy-rich Gulf neighbors.
At least 79 people have perished while attempting to cross the Gulf of Aden this year, the UN refugee agency said.

Source: Arab News