Yemeni passenger ship with 64 passengers on board sinks

Twenty people remain missing after a passenger ship carrying more than 60 people sank in the Indian Ocean off Yemen's Socotra Island.

Rescue ships managed to save 42 people from the ship, which was sailing from the Hadramout provincial capital, Mukalla to Socotra Island with 64 passengers on board. The government's sabanew.net reported that an Austrian and Australian flagged ship were involved in the rescue.

The war ravaged country's fisheries minister, Fahad Kaffen, urged the Saudi-led military coalition supporting the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to help in search and rescue efforts.

President Hadi called for "doubling efforts to broaden rescue operations to reduce the scope of the catastrophe that has struck the inhabitants of Socotra."

Mukalla and Socotra Island are in the hands of Hadi's government, which is battling an alliance of Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in control of the capital Sanaa and large swaths of the north.

It is unclear what caused the ship to sink or what happened to the rest of the passengers.

cw,dm/kms (AFP, Reuters)