Senegal migrant boat wreck death toll reaches 42

Detailed summary

Dakar: The total fatalities from a major migrant vessel capsizing offSenegal snorthwest coast climbed to 42 on Wednesday, authorities in Dakar confirm...

This aerial photograph shows the remains of a pirogue involved in an accident at sea in Lompoul on November 9, 2026. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP)

Dakar: The total fatalities from a major migrant vessel capsizing off Senegal's northwest coast climbed to 42 on Wednesday, authorities in Dakar confirmed. The migrants shipwrecked off the country's coast on Friday.

In Senegal, where a large percentage of youth struggle to find meaningful employment, reaching Europe is seen as a jackpot.

Thousands of would-be migrants from West Africa have died recently trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands from West Africa.

"The latest dead bodies drifted towards the Saint-Louis region (in the northwest), on the beach in the town of Gandiol", the region's fire commander, Amadou Fall, told AFP.

All weekend, emergency services have discovered bodies washed up on the beaches of the coastal region.

As of Wednesday afternoon the numbers had risen to "43 victims, including 42 dead bodies and one survivor", Fall said.

A medical-psychological emergency cell had been dispatched to assist responding personnel and victims' parents, he said.

AFP journalists saw the migrants' rickety pirogue broken in two and severely damaged on a deserted stretch of coastline in the village of Thieppe earlier this week.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Peninsula. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.