Calay News
According to statements to AFP by Samba Kandji, deputy mayor of Ouakam, in the Senegalese capital, “a priori they are migrants.” Kandji claimed that the navy forced the boat to dock, causing people to flee. Some people jumped off the boat, but unfortunately, they didn’t know how to swim.
The commander of the Dakar fire brigade, Martial Ndione, informed the press that 17 victims have been registered, of whom 15 lost their lives and only two survived. However, no details were provided about the origin of the vessel or the circumstances of the incident.
In the rescue and search work on Ouakam Beach, firefighters and gendarmes were deployed, as verified by an AFP journalist. The exact number of people who were on board the canoe is still unknown, according to a representative of the gendarmerie.
In recent weeks, there has been an increase in migratory activity towards the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of Morocco; this route is a gateway to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean for migrants.
This tragic event adds to other shipwrecks that occurred recently in the vicinity of Dakar, where at least thirteen migrants lost their lives about a week ago off the coast of Morocco. Another ship capsized off Saint-Louis in northern Senegal, killing at least 14 people.
NGOs frequently report fatal shipwrecks in Senegalese, Moroccan, Spanish, or international waters, providing unofficial accounts that often include tens or even hundreds of deaths.
On Thursday, President Macky Sall asked the government to intensify controls in the areas and potential departure points for migrant boats and to deploy surveillance, awareness-raising, and accompaniment devices for young people to combat clandestine emigration.
