Boat capsizes off Yemen, killing 60

More than 60 migrants drowned when their boat capsized off Yemen during an attempt to flee their war torn homeland of Somalia, a security official said Thursday.

Twenty-five of the migrants survived by reaching Redhoum on Yemen's southern shore after their boat went down in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, a Yemen security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

On Wednesday night, fishermen reported seeing bodies floating in the water, prompting the army and local citizens to launch a rescue operation, he said.

The official said it wasn't immediately clear what caused the boat accident.

The U.N. refugee agency has reported that at least 439 migrants have died while crossing the Gulf of Aden this year and at least another 489 are missing.

Migrants from the Horn of Africa — particularly from Somalia where ongoing violence between the U.N.-supported interim government and Islamic groups has caused thousands to flee their homes — regularly face abuse at the hands of smugglers at sea.

Some are attacked during the journey and thrown overboard into shark-infested waters, while smugglers often force passengers to disembark offshore to avoid Yemeni coast guard patrols.