At Least 35 Dead as Migrant Boat Sinks Off Senegal’s Coast

At least 35 people have died after a small wooden boat carrying migrants capsized off the north-west coast of Senegal, in the latest disaster on the Atlantic route to Europe. Only one survivor has been found, and rescuers are still searching for more victims, with the number of people on board still unknown.

The flat-bottomed pirogue went down off the Loumpoul dunes in the Kébémer department, on the coast between Dakar and Saint-Louis, about 180 kilometres north of the Senegalese capital. The boat was heading for Spain’s Canary Islands, the usual destination for migrants attempting the Atlantic crossing from West Africa.

Toll climbed through the weekend

The death toll rose steadily as recovery work continued. Senegal’s Ministry of the Interior and Public Security said in a statement on Sunday that 21 bodies had been recovered and one person rescued as of Saturday evening, describing that figure as provisional while search and rescue operations continued.

Later on Sunday, the Senegalese Press Agency (APS) reported that the toll had risen to at least 34, a figure confirmed by the aid group Action for Human Rights and Friendship (ADHA) in a statement to Agence France-Presse. By Sunday evening, firefighters told AFP the provisional toll had reached at least 35 dead, with one survivor.

The Louga regional governor, Ndèye Ngénar Mbodj, visited the affected sites on Sunday as part of the effort to identify and preserve the bodies, according to APS. The interior minister was due to visit the region on Monday to meet victims’ families.

Conflicting accounts of when the boat went down

Even the timing of the sinking is in dispute. Media reports said the pirogue capsized on Saturday, but Saliou Diouf, founder of Senegal’s main migrant aid association Boza Fii, told AFP the boat had gone down on Friday.

Nor is it clear how many people were aboard. APS described the number of missing as indeterminate, and officials have not said how the boat came to grief or who organised the voyage. The nationalities of all the victims have not been confirmed, although Diouf said the bodies recovered on Saturday were Senegalese. The newspaper Le Soleil reported that most of the victims came from the Leona and Thieppe districts of Kébémer department.

The disaster came on a weekend of intense activity on the route. On Friday, Senegalese authorities intercepted 142 migrants aboard a similar small boat heading for Spain. At the other end of the crossing, authorities on El Hierro in the Canary Islands declared an emergency on Saturday after a marked increase in arrivals — more than 3,300 people on around 30 boats since the start of November.

A route that keeps claiming lives

The sinking is the latest in a long series of tragedies on the Atlantic route, one of the world’s most dangerous migration corridors. Thousands of West Africans attempt the crossing to the Canary Islands each year in overcrowded wooden boats, often with no safety equipment and no reliable navigation.

The International Organization for Migration recorded 54 shipwrecks on the West African Atlantic route in 2025, with 1,214 migrants dead or missing. The migrant rights organisation Caminando Fronteras counted 635 deaths on the route in the first five months of 2026 alone. The agency notes its figures are minimum estimates, because documenting migrant deaths at sea is difficult.

The toll from this weekend’s sinking may still rise: the search continues, and families have not yet been told who is among the dead.

President vows crackdown on smugglers

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye addressed the disaster on social media on Sunday, saying all state authorities and resources had been mobilised to locate the missing, care for survivors and support affected families.

“No one should set out with the sea as their only horizon,” Faye wrote. “We will relentlessly continue the fight against those who organise these crossings and the work that gives our young people reasons to hope here.”

The interior ministry said it was determined to combat people-smuggling networks, including through closer cooperation with neighbouring countries. As in previous disasters on the route, the sinking has renewed questions about what more can be done to stop young Senegalese risking the crossing — a question that, for the families waiting in Kébémer, remains unanswered.

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