A minimum of seven individuals have died and many others are lost following a craft transporting around 200 migrants trying to get to the European continent capsized near the shoreline of The Gambia, officials state.
The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday in the vicinity of Jinack village in the North Bank Region and it was afterwards located "beached on a shoal", the Gambian military authorities stated in a release.
Ninety-six people have been saved to date and a hunt is ongoing for the remaining passengers who were aboard the sunken boat that was en route to the Spanish Canary Islands.
The hazardous trip over the Atlantic has grown into a more frequent path for migrants from Africa seeking entry into European nations.
Almost forty-seven thousand migrants made it to the Spanish archipelago in 2024 and figures suggest more than nine thousand individuals perished during the journey.
Search and Rescue Efforts
Following the Wednesday incident, Gambia's naval forces launched a search operation, involving a number of military boats and a fishing boat that came to assist, the defense officials said.
Officials state some of the deceased are foreign nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The bodies of the seven victims who perished at sea have been recovered, and ten of the survivors are described as being in serious condition and receiving urgent medical care.
A Frequent Pathway
The Gambia is a frequent corridor taken by asylum seekers seeking to get to European countries, often on perilous trips across ocean and terrain.
Recently, the European bloc has established pacts with several North African nations aimed at curtailing irregular migration.
