At least 21 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the north-western coast of Senegal, the country's Interior Ministry said on Sunday, in the latest tragedy on the dangerous Atlantic migration route from West Africa to Europe.
Authorities had rescued one survivor and recovered 21 bodies as of Saturday evening, the ministry said in a statement posted on X. The death toll was described as provisional, with search and rescue operations continuing as officials looked for any further survivors or victims.
The accident occurred off Kébémer, a town about 180 kilometres north of the capital, Dakar, in the Louga region. Media reports placed the wreck off the Loumpoul dunes, between Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis, where around 20 bodies were reported to have washed up on the beach on Saturday.
The ministry said the boat was carrying people seeking to migrate irregularly, but it did not say how many people had been on board, nor what caused the vessel to go down. Reports described the craft as a pirogue, the flat-bottomed wooden fishing boat commonly used on the route, which capsized in the waters off the coast.
There was some uncertainty over the precise timing of the sinking. The Hindu, citing the ministry, reported that it occurred on Saturday, 7 November, while Saliou Diouf, founder of Boza Fii, a Senegalese organisation that supports migrants, told the AFP news agency that the boat sank on Friday. The ministry's statement itself did not specify the day.
Senegal's national newspaper Le Soleil reported that most of those who died came from the nearby communes of Léona and Thiéppe, in the same Kébémer department where the boat went down. The Interior Ministry said the families of the victims were being helped, and the interior minister was expected to visit the area on Monday to offer the government's condolences.
The sinking came just a day after Senegalese authorities intercepted 142 migrants on Friday who were travelling on a similar small boat and aiming to reach Spain, underlining how heavily the route is still being used despite its dangers.
The Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands is one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. Thousands of people have died in recent years attempting the journey, with many departing from Senegal and Mauritania in overcrowded wooden boats that are ill-suited to the open ocean.
Only days before this latest sinking, the flow of people attempting the crossing had already been described as unsustainable, after more than 3,200 people were rescued in the space of six days as they tried to reach the Canary Islands. The sheer number of departures has put rescue services under severe strain on both sides of the Atlantic.
Migrants making the crossing are typically driven by a lack of work and opportunity at home, and many pay smugglers large sums for a place on a boat that may take more than a week to reach the Spanish islands, if it arrives at all. Bad weather, engine failure and overcrowding are among the most common causes of disaster.
For now, the search off Kébémer continues, and the final toll may yet rise. The ministry has promised further updates as rescue teams complete their work, while in Léona and Thiéppe, families wait for news of relatives who boarded a boat that never reached its destination.
