Boating tragedy a blow to tsunami-hit Somalia

January 01 2005 at 03:46PM

Nairobi - Thirty-four people drowned when a boat travelling from northern Somalia to Yemen sank in heavy seas in the latest blow for Somali coastal communities already hit by the Asian tsunami, an official said on Saturday.

"Thirty-seven people were on board and only three managed to reach shore," Yusuf Ismail Baribari, a spokesman for Somalia's fledgling government, said of the incident on Friday.

The boat was travelling from Bossasso in northern Somalia to Mekelle in southern Yemen carrying 37 people and 1 200 goats and sheep when it sank off the Somali coast.

Baribari also told a news conference relief agencies were rushing aid to communities in northeastern Somalia devastated by the Asian tsunami on December 26, adding his government believed the death toll had risen to 142.

There was no independent confirmation of that number. Reports from the few aid workers on the ground in the worst-hit Puntland region say 114 were killed when the waves struck.

Most of them were fishermen who had not come home since they set sail on December 26, shortly before the waves triggered by southern Asia's undersea earthquake 6 000km to the east began pounding Africa.

Up to 50 000 in northeast Somalia are in need of emergency aid after the tsunami damaged or destroyed their homes.

German naval vessels attached to a US-led task force based in Djibouti have been visiting affected Somali coastal villages since Thursday to provide emergency relief.