Senegal vows to pursue smugglers after boat sinking claims 39 lives
The pirogue capsized off the Lompoul dunes, in one of the country's deadliest migration disasters in recent years, as the Canary Islands declared an emergency over rising arrivals.
The death toll from the sinking of a migrant boat off north-western Senegal has risen to 39, the authorities have confirmed, making it one of the deadliest such incidents involving Senegalese nationals in recent years.
The overcrowded wooden pirogue capsized on Friday off the Lompoul dunes in the Kébémer department, between Dakar and Saint-Louis. Regional governor Ndeye Nguenar Mbodj said four further bodies were recovered on Monday morning, raising the toll from 35. Twenty-three of the victims have been identified by their families. One survivor has been found, and an undetermined number of passengers remain missing.
The Minister of the Interior, Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé, visited the site on Monday and paid his respects at the wreckage. "Leaving is an option, but dying at sea should not be an option," he said. He described smugglers as "modern-day slave traders" who "must be tracked down relentlessly", called for awareness campaigns to dissuade young people from "false aspirations", and urged a system under which Spain would grant time-limited work permits to migrants.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye offered his condolences and said state services had been mobilised to search for the missing, care for survivors and support bereaved families. He pledged to dismantle the networks behind the crossings.
Grief in the north-east
In north-eastern Senegal, families gathered to mourn sons who had left in search of work. Several households lost relatives on whom they depended financially, and there are fears that others may yet be tempted to attempt the same journey.
Pressure on the Atlantic route
The tragedy is the latest on the Atlantic route from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands. On the island of El Hierro, the authorities declared an emergency on Saturday after more than 3,300 people arrived aboard some 30 boats since the beginning of November. The International Organization for Migration has recorded at least 454 deaths and disappearances on the route this year, a figure it describes as a minimum, noting that many vessels vanish without trace.
Increased patrols by Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco near traditional departure points have pushed boats further south, towards The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, lengthening an already perilous crossing. On the day the pirogue sank, Senegalese police intercepted another boat bound for Spain carrying 142 people, among them 23 women and four children, from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Nigeria.