Cyclone Mekenu pummels UNESCO-protected Socotra island, several feared dead, others missing

SOCOTRA: Hundreds evacuated from their homes after Cyclone Mekunu hit the Yemeni island of Socotra Wednesday night, causing severe flooding and damage to houses, officials said.

Several are feared dead and others reported missing. Four crew members on board a boat that sunk when the storm hit the island in the Arabian Sea were missing, a fisheries ministry official told AFP.

Another official said that 150 families had been evacuated and moved to government facilities after downpours caused houses and streets to flood, trapping people in their homes.

Some residents carrying children tried to escape



through the flooded streets, an AFP correspondent said.

In neighboring Oman, authorities announced through the official news agency they were taking “necessary precautions” in case the cyclone hits the Gulf sultanate.

Millions of Yemenis are living in dire conditions as a result of a long-running civil conflict, which since 2015 has pitted a Saudi-led coalition against the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

But Socotra has been spared involvement in the violence, which has claimed nearly 10,000 lives since March 2015 and triggered what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.