23 migrants dead after shipwreck in northern Senegal

DAKAR, Feb 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Twenty-three illegal migrants died after a boat loaded with migrants heading for Europe sank at the coast of Saint-Louis, in northern Senegal, Senegalese media reported.

A boat carrying illegal migrants capsized in the sea before stranding off the coast of Saint-Louis on Wednesday, reported the Senegalese News Agency citing firefighting sources, adding that 23 bodies were found.

Rescue operations are still underway to find survivors among the 280 people who boarded this boat from Joal, firefighters said.

The national navy was called to conduct search, added the same sources.

“A little more than 20 bodies” had been found, Saint-Louis regional governor Alioune Badara Samb said by telephone, adding that another 20 people had been saved.

“Since the afternoon, we have been witnessing lifeless bodies wash up,” he said, with local rescuers and the navy searching for survivors after nightfall.

Badara Samb did not say how many passengers were aboard the vessel but survivors declared the number could have been in the hundreds.

Mamady Dianfo, a survivor from Casamance in the far south of the country, said there were about 300 passengers when the boat left Senegal a week ago. Another survivor, Alpha Balde, spoke of 200 passengers.

Dianfo said the vessel reached Morocco, where the captain said he was lost and could no longer continue the journey. “We asked him to take us back to Senegal,” he added, saying the accident happened in the notoriously dangerous waters off Saint-Louis.

According to EU border agency Frontex, Senegal, and Morocco are the most common nationalities of migrants arriving on the Atlantic archipelago. — NNN-AGENCIES