Sana'a, Yemen - At least seven African migrants have drowned after smugglers forced passengers of an illegal boat to jump into the sea after crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen, Yemeni officials said on Saturday.

The officials said five bodies, including one of a woman, were recovered by local fishermen hours after the incident that took place late on Friday off the coast of Hisn Baleayd in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan.

Two other bodies of dead passengers washed up on the beach on Saturday, the officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. They said 123 people survived.

Survivors said 130 people on board the boat were ordered at gunpoint to swim several kilometres to the shore.

The boat had set off from the town of Bossaso, in the breakaway Somali republic of Puntland.

Hundreds of Somali and Ethiopian migrants perish every year crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in small boats run by smugglers operating from Somali ports.

Some 18,000 people, mainly Somalis, have arrived in Yemen in small boats across the Gulf of Aden and nearly 400 are believed to have drowned attempting the journey since the beginning of 2008.

Last year, more than 113,000 people, mostly Somalis, made the perilous voyage to Yemen, with over 1,400 deaths.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called on the international community last week to intervene to end the conflict in Somalia as a means to end the refugee exodus. (dpa)