Senegal migrant boat toll rises to at least 35 as search continues

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At least 35 people have died after a small migrant boat sank off north-western Senegal, emergency services told AFP on Sunday, in the latest tragedy on the Atlantic route from Africa to Europe.

The wooden pirogue capsized off the Loumpoul dunes in Kébémer department, between Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis. Senegal's interior ministry first said 21 bodies and one survivor had been recovered; the Senegalese Press Agency later put the toll at 34, and firefighters then gave AFP a revised provisional figure of at least 35 dead with one survivor.

The boat was bound for the Canary Islands. How many people were aboard has not been established, and an indeterminate number remain missing. The bodies recovered so far are Senegalese, according to Saliou Diouf, founder of the migrant aid association Boza Fii, who said the sinking occurred on Friday; the boat is reported to have departed from the Saloum islands carrying Senegalese, Gambians, Malians and Guineans.

The numbers here are successive updates, not a single settled count: the ministry's published statement still records 21, APS reported 34 on Sunday morning, and firefighters gave 35 on Sunday evening, with one ministry source telling AFP the toll would unfortunately rise. The cause of the capsizing is unknown, and the exact date is given as both Friday and Saturday in different accounts. What is consistent across every report is the scale — one survivor against dozens dead — and that the search was still going on.

The Atlantic route is one of the deadliest in the world. At least 635 people died on it in the first five months of 2026, according to the Spanish rights group Walking Borders, and in a separate operation on Saturday the Senegalese gendarmerie intercepted 142 people off Dakar. El Hierro, a Canary island of about 10,000 people, declared a state of emergency on Saturday after thousands of arrivals in days, with 49 boats carrying 4,587 migrants reaching the islands between 1 and 6 November.

Senegal's interior minister, Mouhamadou Makhtar Cissé, was due to visit the area on Monday, 9 November, and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has mobilised state services and vowed action against the smuggling networks.