Sana'a, Yemen  - At least nine African migrants drowned after they were forced at gunpoint by the traffickers transporting them to to jump from a boat off Yemen's southern coast on Tuesday, rescuers said.

The traffickers forced more than 90 passengers, mainly Ethiopians, to jump overboard as the boat neared the end of its trip off the southern Yemeni town of Ahwar on the Gulf of Aden, rescuers told German Press Agency dpa.

The rescuers said 83 people, including women, managed to survive after swimming to shore, and that the bodies of nine men had washed up on the coast of Ahwar, around 600 kilometres south of Sana'a. (dpa)