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Sana'a: The number of people fleeing Somalia for Yemen more than doubled as fighting in southern and central parts of the east African country led more people to seek safety across the Gulf of Aden, the United Nations said.
More than 15,300 people made the crossing between Jan. 1 and April 20, up from 7,166 in the same period a year earlier, the UN High Commission for Refugees said in a statement on its Web site.
At least 361 people died or were reported missing after attempting to make the journey, about the same number of people who were killed a year earlier, it said.
The use of new smuggling routes across the Gulf of Aden from northern Somalia and Djibouti to Yemen have contributed to the rising numbers.
Refugees pay as much as $150 each to sail across the Gulf on small, fast boats, or up to $70 to travel on larger, slower boats, the agency said. The 300-kilometer (186- mile) journey can take between two and four days.
US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in December 2006, ousting the Union of Islamic Courts government that had briefly controlled southern Somalia, and installing the United Nations-supported transitional federal government.
At least 750,000 people have been forced from their homes by fighting that has continued for the past 18 months, according to the UN.
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