Yemen said on Saturday it had recovered the bodies of 40 Somalis who drowned after being forced overboard by traffickers in the Gulf of Aden. A further 78 people rescued from the water were receiving medical treatment in hospitals, a security official said in a statement released on the Yemeni defence ministry website. "They will undergo treatment before being handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees," said Ahmed al-Muqdashi, head of security for the southern province of Abyan, adding that the search for the bodies took three days and two people were still unaccounted for.The UNHCR estimates that more than 20,000 people have made the perilous crossing of the Gulf of Aden to Yemen this year, with at least 439 deaths and another 489 people missing.