Dakar (Senegal): The death toll from a migrant boat accident off Senegal rose to 39 on Monday after rescuers recovered more bodies, authorities said.
Only one passenger had been rescued, while a search operation to find others was continuing, the Interior Ministry said. It did not disclose how many people were aboard the boat.
The boat had left Saint-Louis in northern Senegal and was heading towards the Spanish coast when it capsized on Sunday near the town of Kebemer, north of the capital, Dakar, officials said.
It was one of two migrant boat accidents over the weekend that left at least 56 people dead, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The other occurred off Greece, where authorities recovered 13 bodies from a boat found sailing south of Crete. Another person later died.
The Senegalese boat was travelling along a well-established migration route used by thousands of young Senegalese seeking better opportunities abroad. Migrants undertake the roughly 1,290-kilometre journey across the Atlantic Ocean in open wooden canoes in an attempt to reach Europe.
High unemployment and poverty have driven many young people to seek opportunities abroad as Senegal grapples with an economic crisis.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye offered his condolences to the victims’ families and vowed to crack down on the networks behind the dangerous crossings.
“Smugglers and traffickers charged them for a dangerous journey on boats that were not fit for the sea,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement. “These networks profit from desperation, and every day they operate, more lives are put at risk.”
