SANAA, 7 July 2006 — Six sailors drowned and 13 were rescued when their vessel capsized in inclement weather in the Indian Ocean near an island off the coast of Yemen, the official Yemeni news agency Saba reported yesterday.
The ship, owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates, was carrying 5,000 tons of cement from Oman to Tanzania when it went down Wednesday, the agency said. The 97-meter-long merchant vessel, Mariam-4, was registered in Panama.
The ship drifted off course in bad weather late Wednesday and ran aground about 30 nautical miles off the Yemeni island of Abdul-Kori, Yemeni Coast Guard officials said. The Yemeni coast guard and ships from “friendly” countries operating in the area managed to rescue 13 seamen and to retrieve the bodies of six others.
The agency said rescuers recovered the bodies of six sailors “of different nationalities”, but it did not give a breakdown.
Officials at the southern Yemeni port of Aden said 19 sailors of Indian, Sri Lankan, Burmese and Somali nationalities were on board the vessel.
The body of a sailor was recovered early yesterday and navy ships, patrolling the area as part of a US-led anti-terrorism mission, pulled five other bodies later in the day, Saba said. The 13 rescued sailors were admitted to hospitals in Aden.
