International News

ADEN, (MILLAT+APP/AFP): Around 40 people were missing
off the Yemeni island of Socotra on Wednesday after a cargo vessel carrying islanders home from the mainland sank in the Indian Ocean, authorities said.
Nineteen people were rescued from the water after a major search
operation was launched in the early hours, Yemeni Fisheries Minister Fahd Kavieen told reporters.
The first two survivors were rescued by a passing Austrian vessel and
an Australian ship, the government’s sabanew.com website reported.
Kavieen did not give details of how the others were rescued.
Although long ruled from Yemen, Socotra lies closer to the coast of
Africa than it does to the Arabian Peninsula.
The waters around the island lie at the exit of a busy shipping lane
from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean.
For years it was prey to piracy from the lawless coast of nearby
Somalia and it is now one of the most heavily patrolled sea areas in the world.
Kavieen did not specify whether warships of the international
counter-piracy operation were taking part in the search for survivors.
He said that the ship had been missing for five days and its sinking
had been confirmed on Tuesday.
“The search is ongoing,” he said. “Vessels have been combing the area
since the early hours and there is significant hope that the passengers have
survived.”