AI-generated illustration · Source : APS; Reuters' X
KÉBÉMER, Senegal, November 8 – The number of people killed when a boat carrying migrants sank off Kébémer in northwestern Senegal has risen to 34 after more bodies were recovered, Senegal’s official news agency APS reported on Sunday, citing an official source.
Earlier on Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security said in a statement that authorities had rescued one survivor and recovered 21 bodies as of Saturday evening, Reuters reported. The ministry described that toll as provisional and said search and rescue operations were continuing.
The accident happened off Kébémer, a town about 180 kilometres north of Dakar, the ministry said. The boat was carrying people seeking to migrate irregularly, but the statement did not say how many were on board.
APS, in a report dated Sunday, November 8 at 10.53am local time, said the governor of Louga region, Ndèye Ngénar Mbodj, was visiting the sites concerned on Sunday as part of operations to identify and preserve the bodies. Interior Minister Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé is expected at the scene on Monday to convey the state’s compassion and solidarity to bereaved families and affected communities, APS said.
In its statement, the ministry said the minister of the interior and public security, on behalf of the president of the Republic and the government, paid tribute to the memory of the victims and offered his sincere condolences to the bereaved families. The relevant state services had been mobilised to continue searching, help any possible survivors and support affected families, it said.
The government reaffirmed its determination to fight people-smuggling networks, particularly through stronger cooperation with neighbouring countries, and urged people to be more vigilant about the dangers of irregular migration, the statement said. It also repeated its commitment to the social and economic integration of young people.
Media reports said the flat-bottomed pirogue capsized on Saturday off the Loumpoul dunes in Kébémer department, between Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis, according to Channels Television. The Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil reported that most of the victims came from the Leona and Thieppe districts in the same department.
Senegalese authorities also said they had intercepted 142 migrants on Friday who were on a similar small boat heading for Spain. Police said the group included 23 women, two babies and two other children, from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Nigeria.
Thousands of people have died in recent years trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from West Africa, including 635 in the first five months of this year, according to the migrant rights group Walking Borders, Reuters reported.
The International Organization for Migration has said that tighter controls at traditional departure points in Senegal, Morocco and Mauritania have pushed some migrants further south, to countries such as The Gambia. The IOM has warned that these alternative departure points can add up to 750 kilometres to the crossing, extending some journeys to about 2,200 kilometres and exposing people to longer periods at sea and greater risks of shipwreck, dehydration and disappearance.
Source: Reuters’ X; Senegal Ministry of the Interior and Public Security; APS
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