A local deputy mayor told AFP on Monday that at least 14 people were killed after their wooden boat sank off the coast of Dakar, Senegal’s capital.
“It appears to be migrants,” Samba Kandji remarked after several similar catastrophes in recent weeks.
Rescuers were still seeking for more bodies after the pirogue capsized between Sunday and Monday night.
“The navy told the vessel to draw alongside and they fled,” Kandji later explained.
“I was told 14 people were killed, but two more bodies have been discovered.” “We’re assuming 16,” he remarked.
In recent weeks, activity has surged along the Atlantic water route used by migrants attempting to reach Europe via Spain’s Canary Islands.
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A pirogue capsized near Senegal’s border with Mauritania in mid-July, killing at least 14 people.
During a one-week span this month, Morocco’s navy “rescued” nearly 900 unauthorised migrants. The vast majority came from Sub-Saharan Africa.
NGOs often record tragic shipwrecks in Moroccan, Spanish, and international waterways, with unofficial estimates ranging from dozens to hundreds of lives lost.
