Pope offers prayers after shipwreck of migrant boat off Yemen

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.

“Deeply saddened by the devastating loss of life resulting from the shipwreck off the coast of Yemen, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV commends the many migrants who have died to the loving mercy of almighty God,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, wrote in a telegram published by the Vatican Aug. 4.

A boat carrying more than 150 migrants — most from Ethiopia — capsized and sank Aug. 3; news reports, citing Yemeni officials, said 32 people were rescued and the bodies of 76 others had been recovered by midday Aug. 4. A search for others was ongoing.

“Upon the survivors, the emergency personnel and all those affected by this tragedy,” Cardinal Parolin said, Pope Leo “invokes divine strength, comfort and hope.”

Although Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war for more than a decade, migrants from the Horn of Africa — Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti — continue to attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden in the hopes of passing through Yemen and finding work in one of the wealthy countries on the Arabian Peninsula.

The International Organization for Migration described the route as “the region’s busiest and most dangerous” route for migration but said that did not prevent more than 60,000 migrants from arriving in Yemen in 2024.