A minimum of seven individuals have perished and many others are missing following a boat ferrying about two hundred people seeking to enter the European continent sank near the shoreline of the Gambian coast, authorities say.
The boat overturned on Wednesday midnight in the vicinity of Jinack village in the North Bank Region and it was afterwards located "stranded on a sandbar", the country's defence ministry said in a statement.
96 individuals have been rescued so far and a search is continuing for the remaining passengers who were aboard the shipwrecked vessel that was bound for Spain's Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic has grown into a more frequent path for migrants from Africa attempting to get to Europe.
Almost forty-seven thousand migrants reached the Spanish archipelago in 2024 and data indicates in excess of 9,000 people perished in the attempt.
Search and Rescue Efforts
In the aftermath of the disaster, the navy initiated a search operation, deploying a number of military boats and a fishing vessel that came to assist, the defense officials reported.
Officials state several of the victims are foreign nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The bodies of the seven victims who died have been recovered, and ten of the survivors are reported to be in critical condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
An Established Corridor
The Gambia is one of the routes utilized by migrants attempting to enter Europe, frequently via perilous trips across ocean and terrain.
Recently, the European bloc has reached agreements with several North African countries with the goal of limiting irregular migration.
