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| Fishing pirogues at Ouakam beach in Dakar, Senegal. File photograph, 2020. Ruth Zurielly Jennings / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
Emergency services in Senegal raised the death toll from a migrant boat sinking to at least 39 on Monday, 9 November, after search teams recovered more bodies along the country’s north-western coast.
Only one passenger had been confirmed rescued alive, according to the Associated Press. Authorities had not established how many people were aboard, and the search continued for missing passengers.
The vessel went down near the Lompoul dunes in Kébémer department, between Dakar and Saint-Louis. Reports described it as a pirogue, a small, flat-bottomed boat of the kind used for crossings towards Spain’s Canary Islands.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said on Sunday that the government had deployed personnel and resources to find those missing and assist affected families.
“All state authorities and resources have been mobilised to locate those who have gone missing, provide care for the survivors and support families.”
Faye made the statement on Facebook as rescue teams continued their work. The Senegalese Press Agency also reported his assurance that state authorities were supporting the search and the victims’ relatives.
The interior ministry announced that its minister would visit the area on Monday to meet bereaved families and convey the government’s condolences.
In its Sunday statement, the ministry stressed “its determination to combat people smuggling networks, notably through strengthened cooperation with neighbouring countries”. It also said state services would continue searching for passengers and supporting affected households.
The confirmed death toll increased through several updates over the weekend. The ministry initially reported 21 bodies and one survivor, based on information available by Saturday evening.
APS subsequently put the number of deaths at 34 on Sunday, a figure also given to AFP by Action for Human Rights and Friendship, known as ADHA. The agency said an “indeterminate number” of people remained missing.
Emergency services then reported at least 35 deaths on Sunday night, before Monday’s further increase.
“It's a provisional toll which has been changing since Friday.”
An interior ministry source separately told AFP: “The toll will unfortunately rise.”
Accounts of when the boat sank differed. Some reports placed the incident on Saturday, 7 November, while Saliou Diouf, founder of the migrant assistance organisation Boza Fii, told AFP that it happened on Friday.
Diouf said authorities had yet to confirm the nationalities of everyone who died.
“But the bodies recovered yesterday (Saturday) are Senegalese,” he added.
In a separate operation on Friday, Senegalese authorities intercepted another small boat carrying 142 people who were attempting to reach Spain.
Police said that group included 23 women, two babies and two other children. The passengers came from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Nigeria.
The sinking occurred amid increased arrivals in the Canary Islands, a destination for people travelling by sea from West Africa. Authorities on El Hierro declared an emergency on Saturday following a rise in the number of boats reaching the island.
They reported more than 3,300 arrivals aboard approximately 30 boats since the beginning of November.
Thousands of people have died in recent years while attempting the Atlantic crossing from West Africa to the Spanish islands.
AFP reported that stronger maritime patrols around departure points in Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco were pushing some departures further south towards Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea. Those longer journeys extend the time passengers spend at sea.