Nine dead, many missing after boat ‘carrying 100 migrants’ sinks off Senegal

The Senegalese army says at least nine people have been reported dead after a boat accident in Senegal over the weekend.

On Monday, Radio Television Senegalaisee (RTS), the state broadcaster, said the boat was carrying around 100 migrants from Mbour town to Spain’s Canary Islands and overturned after only 4km of navigation.

The boat used to transport the migrants was a narrow, wooden fishing vessel known as a pirogue.

RTS said four people were rescued but many are still missing.

France’s navy, which also has operations in Senegal, said it launched a search involving three naval units and a Spanish maritime patrol aircraft on Sunday, the day of the incident.

“To date, 09 lifeless bodies have been discovered and 03 survivors identified. An unknown number of people were rescued by local fishermen,” the French navy said. Search operations continue.”

The journey by boat from the coast of West Africa towards the Canary Islands is a popular migration route.

The route has seen a 154 percent surge this year, with 21,620 people arriving in the Canary Islands in the first seven months, according to data from Frontex, the European Union (EU) border agency.

The latest incident comes some 48 hours after units of the French navy said they intercepted two pirogues carrying a total of 276 migrants off the coast of Mbour and at the mouth of the Senegal River.