Cyclone kills Yemeni fishermen in Somalia

 AL-MUKALLA: Seven Yemeni fishermen died when their boat was destroyed by gale-force winds as tropical Cyclone Gati lashed Somalia.

The seven fishermen were asleep on the vessel in a sheltered breakwater in Xaafuun in the northeast of the country when the storm — Somalia’s strongest on record — struck early on Sunday morning.

Omer Gambet, head of the Fisheries Cooperative Union in Al-Mukalla, the capital of Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout, told Arab News that the fishermen, all from Kusair village, were among dozens of Yemenis fishing for tuna in Somalian waters.

The bodies of the seven men were found close to the wreckage of their fishing vessel, he said.

Cyclone Gati lashed parts of Somalia on Sunday after wreaking havoc on Yemen’s remote island of Socotra.

 At least eight people were killed and thousands left homeless as torrential rain and gale-force winds destroyed houses in the villages of Xaafuun and Hurdiya.

Local authorities in Yemen have ordered financial compensation for the families of the seven fishermen.

In Socotra, where the cyclone first made landfall on Saturday, residents told Arab News that three days of nonstop rain had triggered flash floods that damaged houses and washed away cars in and around Hadibu, the island’s capital.

“People are in desperate need of food aid,” a local government official said.