At least 44 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded after a Saudi airstrike hit a refugee boat off Yemen’s western coast.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television reported on Thursday that the boat which came under attack was carrying Somali refugees near Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

According to the report, there are a number of women and children among the victims.

Reuters quoted a local official in Hudaydah as saying that the boat had come under attack by an Apache helicopter.

The refugees were on their way from Yemen to Sudan, the unnamed official said.

Earlier in the day, Saudi fighter jets bombed a food transport truck in the western province of al-Hudaydah, killing all the passengers, al-Masirah reported, without giving the number of those killed.