Sana'a, Yemen  - More than 50 African migrants are feared dead after smugglers forced them from a crowded boat off the coast of Yemen on Monday, local officials said.

The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that nine bodies, including two of women, were recovered after the accident.

They said 47 people made it to shore of the al-Masani area in the southern Yemeni province of Abayn on the Gulf of Aden.

Forty-two people went missing and were feared dead by Monday evening, they added. In total, 98 Somali and Ethiopian refuge-seekers were onboard.

Survivors were treated at a medical centre run by the international relief agency, Doctors Without Borders, the officials said.

A breakdown of nationalities was not immediately available, but the officials said most of the survivors were Somalis.

More than 1,700 African refuge-seekers arrived on Yemen's coast in August as a new wave of smuggling resumed after summer storms in the Gulf of Aden region subsided.

On September 11, at least 29 migrants drowned after smugglers forced passengers of a crowded boat overboard at gunpoint in deep waters. Ten more people died during the trip.

Last week, Yemeni authorities decided to set up three centres for monitoring the international waters in the Gulf of Aden as part of efforts to fight piracy and human trafficking in the Horn of Africa.

The centres would be established in the port cities of Aden and Mukalla on the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea port of Houdieda, the official Saba news agency reported.

In addition, 1,000 marines are to be deployed along the Yemeni coasts on the Gulf of Aden to combat human smuggling activities.

Hundreds of people perish every year in the perilous exodus that takes thousands of desperate people, mostly from strife-torn Somalia, to Yemen in small boats run by smugglers operating from Somali ports.

Last year, more than 113,000 people, mostly Somalis, arrived on Yemeni coasts, and more than 1,400 deaths were registered.

Since the outbreak of civil war in Somalia, Yemen has become a magnet for refugees fleeing violence and drought. The country is seen as a gateway to Europe and the oil-rich countries of the Arabian peninsula. (dpa)