GENEVA, April 23 Thirty-five African migrants, believed to be mainly Somalis and Ethiopians, drowned when a smuggler's boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday.

More than 80 survivors from the latest tragedy in the Gulf of Aden, which occurred on Wednesday, made it to shore, it said.

Another vessel carrying 105 migrants made the journey safely.

“Thirty-five people drowned after one of two smugglers' boats carrying more than 220 passengers across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized Wednesday off the coast of Yemen's Abyan region,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

The two vessels had left on Monday from the vicinity of Bossasso in Somalia, it said. The Abyan region of Yemen is some 250 kms east of Aden.

Survivors included an 8-year-old Somali boy whose mother drowned.

“This is one of the most dramatic incidents in months,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux.

Migrants making the perilous crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty and famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, the UNHCR says.

So far this year, at least 131 have died and another 66 are presumed missing at sea. Some 387 boats carrying nearly 20,000 people have arrived in Yemen after crossing the treacherous, pirate-infested waters, according to the Geneva-based agency.—Reuters