A minimum of seven people have perished and many others remain unaccounted for after a craft ferrying about two hundred migrants trying to get to European shores overturned off the coast of The Gambia, reports confirm.
The craft flipped late Wednesday night in the vicinity of Jinack village in the North Bank area and it was later found "stranded on a sandbar", the country's defence ministry stated in a release.
96 individuals have been rescued so far and a rescue operation continues for the remaining passengers who were aboard the capsized craft that was bound for Spain's Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic has emerged as a rising pathway for African migrants attempting to get to European nations.
Close to 47,000 individuals made it to the Spanish archipelago in 2024 and figures suggest in excess of nine thousand individuals have lost their lives during the journey.
Search and Rescue Efforts
In the aftermath of the disaster, the navy launched a search-and-rescue operation, involving a number of military boats and a fishing vessel that offered help, the defence ministry reported.
Officials state some of the deceased are not Gambian nationals and that their identities are still being verified.
The bodies of the seven individuals who perished at sea have been retrieved, and 10 of those rescued are said to be in grave health and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Common Migration Route
This West African nation is one of the routes taken by migrants trying to reach the EU, typically through dangerous journeys across ocean and terrain.
Recently, the EU has reached agreements with multiple North African countries aimed at curtailing undocumented migration.
