Late breaking: 197 migrants drown in Red Sea

Drowning followed the burning of a boat that was illegally transporting them to Saudi Arabia.

KHARTOUM:

Nearly 200 people drowned on Tuesday when a boat carrying illegal migrants from Sudan to Saudi Arabia caught fire after four hours at sea, Sudanese officials said.

“One hundred and ninety seven people from neighbouring countries drowned in the Red Sea, inside Sudanese territorial waters, following the burning of a boat that was illegally transporting them to Saudi Arabia,” the semi-official Sudan Media Centre (SMC) said, citing officials.

SMC quoted authorities in Sudan’s Red Sea state as saying only three people had been rescued, but that the search for more survivors was ongoing.

They said the trafficking operation was planned and implemented in the locality of Tokar, about 150 kilometres south of Port Sudan, and that four Yemenis, who allegedly owned the Cuban-flagged boat, had been arrested. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2011.