SOME 46 AFRICAN REFUGEES HELD IN ABYAN

ABYAN, Feb. 03 (Saba) - About 46 Africans held after they had
disembarked from three boats in Ahwar coast, Abyan province, the
Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday.

As the boats managed to flee, the security forces have arrested 25
Ethiopians and 21 Somalis.

The security authorities in the governorates said that the Africans
have been held in the in the Shokra centre to be questioned and sent
to the temporary refugee camp of Ahwar.

Yemen is tightening security at its coastline to thwart possible
infiltration of militants of the Somalia-based Young Mejuhideen
Movement (Harakat Al Shabaab).

The act came after Somalia movement has announced late in 2009
readiness to send militants to support al-Qaeda in Yemen, whose
hideouts in the country raided by the Yemeni forces.

In recent months, weapons were seized with a number of African
infiltrators who crossed sea into Yemen. Authorities also said that
dozens of Africans, most of whom were Somalis, were arrested
fighting the army in support of the Houthi insurgents in the far
north.

All this comes amid a persistent influx of Africans into the
country, arriving almost in daily numbers, laying more burdens on
Yemen's fragile economy and posing threats to national and regional
security.

AF/AF