GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - At least 18 people have drowned after a smuggler's boat carrying 88 people from Somalia to Yemen capsized this week in the Gulf of Aden, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday. The boat left on June 11 and sailed for four days before hitting strong winds and taking on water, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. Another 29 people are still missing and presumed dead after the latest fatal accident in the sea lane connecting the Horn of Africa and Yemen, seen as a gateway to jobs in the Middle East. "More bodies are expected to be washed ashore," the UNHCR said, estimating that 146 people have drowned attempting the Gulf of Aden voyage so far this year and 25,764 have arrived safely in Yemen. "Those who make the crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty and famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa," it said. Earlier on Thursday, hardline Islamic insurgents killed Somalia's security minister and at least 30 other people in the country's deadliest suicide bomb attack to date. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis)
Somalia's security minister Omar Hashi Aden (R) is seen in this April 2009 file photo, in the capital Mogadishu. Hard-line Islamist Insurgents killed Somalia's security minister and at least 24 other ...
