From Somalia to Yemen

Haley Sweetland Edwards, he of old Waq al-Waq friend The Sana'a Bureau, has a LATimes article about the plight of Somali refugees on their horrific trek to Yemen.  Wrenching reading, top-notch writing.  Here's a little sample, but read the whole thing.

When the coastal patrol finds the bodies of refugees, it transports them to one of three UNHCR-run cemeteries in southern Yemen, which buried more than 315 last year. Ahmed Haj, who helps run Al Hamra, the UNHCR cemetery in Mayfa Hagar, said they had buried 81 people since it opened in September.

"Not everyone gets their own grave," he said, pacing a graveyard the size of a football field a few hundred feet from the shore. Each grave was marked by a blue number on a white post pounded into the ground. The sour smell of decomposing flesh hung in the air.

"They think they are coming to paradise, and this is their destination," Saleh said. "They come from one thing to a worse thing. It is hell."


 ******EDIT******

Regarding Haley: "He" should read "she".  Mea culpa, Haley.