Senegal: Death Toll from Capsized Canoe Rises to 14

Africa News

The Senegalese government announced on Friday that the death toll had risen again, to 14 and four injured, following the capsizing of a pirogue on Wednesday in Saint-Louis (north), on the migratory route linking the country to the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries.

A previous death toll established on Thursday by Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome, during a visit to Saint-Louis the same day, had been eight dead and four injured.

"All State services have mobilized to provide support and comfort to the survivors", said a statement from the Senegalese Ministry of the Interior. The text gives no details on the circumstances of the new death toll of 14, on the survivors or the number of people on board the boat.

The local press reported on Friday that six new bodies had been discovered on the coast near Saint-Louis.

According to local media, the boat was carrying migrants, and the death toll could be much higher, as these pirogues are often crowded and can hold dozens of people.

According to a local official, the boat was coming from the south. The accident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday near the coast, and it is possible that some of the migrants fled, he added.

According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, which obtains its information from calls made by migrants or their relatives, three other boats, departing from Senegal and carrying a total of over 300 migrants, are missing.

According to a local official, the boat was coming from the south. The accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday near the coast, and it is possible that some of the migrants fled, he added.

According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, which obtains its information from calls made by migrants or their relatives, three other boats, departing from Senegal and carrying a total of over 300 migrants, are missing.

One of them set sail on June 27 from Kafountine, a small coastal town in southern Senegal some 1,700 kilometers off the coast of the Canary Islands, with some 200 people on board. The other two left from the Mbour region.

The search for the missing migrants' boats resumed on Wednesday, Spanish rescuers said.

According to the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between June 28 and July 9, 260 Senegalese "in distress" were "rescued in Moroccan territorial waters". It did not specify whether these boats corresponded to those reported by the NGO.

Mr. Diome said on Thursday that 276 people are currently in a center in Morocco and that "they are doing well".

On Wednesday, Caminando Fronteras reacted in a statement, claiming to have been able to verify that the rescues mentioned by the Senegalese government corresponded to other boats "that had also left the Senegalese coast, but not to those that had the 300 wanted people on board".

In addition, the Senegalese navy intercepted a fishing boat carrying 71 migrants during the night of Wednesday to Thursday, said the army in a statement published Thursday on social networks.

The navy boarded the boat near the mouth of the Senegal River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and handed over the passengers to the gendarmerie, according to the same source.