Some 400 Sudanese arrive to Yemeni Island

HAJJAH, June 10 (Saba) - Coastguards at Medi Island of Hajjah
province said that an anonymous boat disembarked 400 people have the
Sudanese nationality, from Rashaida tribe, Interior Ministry has
reported.

The 400 Sudanese, including women, have been smuggled into the
island illegally.

The Rashaida are a Bedouin tribe populating either side of the Red
Sea as well as other parts of the Arabian Peninsula. They descend
from a major Arab tribe in the Peninsula called Banu Abs. Most of
the Rashaida live in the Arabian Peninsula.

Rashaida people migrated in large numbers to Eastern Sudan and
Eritrea where they are a tribe of recent Arab origin, keeping their
traditional dress, culture, customs and religion (Sunni Islam). They
speak Hedjazi Arabic.

Press reports said two days ago that a Sudanese has been found dead
in a Yemeni northern coastal area. Locals said that he might be
killed in a police hunt for Sudanese illegal migrants and smugglers.

The dead, who has been buried in a Yemeni island after locals
informed the police about his death, arrived at the area along with
other Sudanese people, believed to have come from Rashaida tribe in
Sudan, local sources said last Monday.

The Sudanese people had planned to infiltrate into Saudi Arabia, the
sources added.

The security forces rushed to catch them as soon as they landed in
Medi, Hajjah, while they were on two cars and it appeared one has
been killed in the hunt.

No comments on the incident have been issued from the authorities
yet.

Last year, about 70 Sudanese people drowned in Yemen waters off
Hajjah. Details of their voyage are still vague.

Yemeni fishermen found their bodies after the waves washed them up
on the Yemeni shore. They were buried immediately in a Yemeni island
near to the site.

AF/AF