At least 13 people have died and 14 others remain missing after a boat capsized off Yemen on Tuesday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday.

The migrant boat, carrying 25 Ethiopians and two Yemenis, had been sailing off the coast of Yemen's Taiz governorate in the southwest, IOM said.

The bodies of the deceased, 11 men and two women, were recovered along the shores of Bab al-Mandab Strait — one of the world's most important sea routes for global commodity shipments.

Search operations were continuing in the hopes of locating those who were still missing, which included the Yemeni captain and his assistant, said the report, adding it wasn't clear what had caused the vessel to sink.

In July, a boat with at least 45 refugees capsized off the coast of Yemen's Taiz, and there were only four survivors.

IOM, which runs a tally of migrants who are killed or missing on migration routes, has recorded 2,082 migrant deaths and disappearances along the route running from East Africa and the Horn of Africa to Gulf countries since 2014.