A French Navy ship rescued around 100 African migrants, mostly Somalis, on a drifting boat in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a Yemeni coastguard source said, dpa reported. The source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the boat was 65 miles from the southern Yemeni port of Aden when it drifted after an engine failure. A French frigate patrolling the area spotted the boat and rushed to its rescue. "All the passengers were rescued and will be handed over to Yemeni coastguard officials later today," the source said. The migrants, Somalis and Ethiopians, were heading to the Yemeni coast seeking refuge in the Arabian Peninsula country. This was the third accident involving migrants off Yemen in the course of one month. Forty-five Africans drowned after a boat carrying them from Somalia across the Gulf of Aden capsized in deep waters off Yemen on February 27. On February 20, six African migrants drowned and 11 were reported missing and presumed dead after traffickers pushed 52 passengers overboard in deep waters off Yemen's south-eastern coast.
