DAKAR: A small boat carrying migrants sank off northwestern Senegal killing at least 21 people in the latest tragedy along the dangerous Atlantic Ocean route from Africa to Europe, authorities said.
The Senegalese interior ministry said in a statement that only one person had been rescued in addition to the 21 bodies recovered, which added to the thousands who have died in recent years trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from West Africa.
The ministry said the death toll was “provisional” as of late Saturday and that the search was still going on and the families of victims were being helped. Media reports said the pirogue-type flat-bottom boat capsized on Saturday off the Loumpoul dunes in Kebemer department, between Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis. However Saliou Diouf, founder of Senegal’s main migrant aid association Boza Fii, told AFP that “the sinking occurred on Friday”.