A representational photo showing a small boat carrying around 30 migrants, adrift off the coast of Nieuwpoort, West-Flanders province, on November 8, 2026. (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK / Belga / AFP) / Belgium OUT
Dakar: At least 34 people were killed in Senegal after a small vessel carrying migrants sank off the country's northwestern coast, officials confirmed Sunday.
It was the latest disaster on a route where thousands have died in recent years trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands from west Africa.
An initial statement from the Senegalese interior ministry said 21 bodies and only one survivor had been recovered following the sinking, but that those numbers were provisional as the search continued.
Later Sunday however, the Senegalese Press Agency (APS) said the toll now stood at 34 at least, a figure confirmed by Action for Human Rights and Friendship (ADHA) in a statement to AFP.
An "indeterminate number" of people were reported missing, APS added.
Media reports said the pirogue-type flat-bottom boat capsized on Saturday off the Loumpoul dunes in Kebemer department, between Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis.
However Saliou Diouf, founder of Senegal's main migrant aid association Boza Fii, told AFP that "the sinking occurred on Friday".
The nationalities of all the victims had not been confirmed "as the search is ongoing", he said. "But the bodies recovered yesterday (Saturday) are Senegalese," he added.
Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye wrote on Facebook on Sunday: "All state authorities and resources have been mobilised to locate those who have gone missing, provide care for the survivors and support families."
Thousands of people from West Africa try each year to reach Europe on the perilous Atlantic route.
