Sana'a: At least 53 Somalis have drowned while trying to cross from Somalia to Yemen, a Yemeni official said on Tuesday.

The Somalis were forced to jump off the boat and into the sea off Yemen’s Abyan province to swim ashore, a provincial official said.

At least 92 of the 145 aboard the vessel survived and were sent to refugee camps.

Last week another 75 Somali migrants drowned in a similar incident.