In Senegal, the search is still ongoing on September 9, 2024, following a new tragedy of illegal emigration: a pirogue with at least 150 passengers on board capsized the day before off the coast of the town of Mbour, around a hundred kilometers south of Dakar.
With phones in hand and worried looks on their faces, a hundred people came to the palm-fringed beach to see the rescue team or to ask about a loved one. This is the case for Pape Samb. His 17-year-old nephew has not returned since the shipwreck. I came to get some information but we haven’t found him yet. He left yesterday “, he testifies.
As the hours pass, hope fades as the search continues. A rescue Zodiac boat arrives on the beach with another lifeless body on board. Five bodies have been found, adding to the four drowned people found on Sunday by fishermen who came to the rescue of the canoe in distress. In all, 24 people were saved and three men are still in hospital.
But this toll will undoubtedly increase because for the moment, we do not know for sure how many passengers – 150 or more? – were on board this pirogue. In any case, the boat left one of the beaches of Mbour the day before in the middle of the afternoon, heading for the Canary Islands, before sinking about thirty minutes later, 3 km from the Senegalese coast. It is disastrous what is happening in Mbour. The losses are enormous. We cannot imagine young people, not even 30 years old, who have died. “, says Cheick, a Senegalese who says he knows about twenty people who were in the canoe.
“It’s a disaster”
At the morgue, 200m away, grief is mixed with anger at seeing these tragedies repeat themselves. This is a disaster that will unfortunately happen again because these young people are determined to leave. “, says Mohamed Baro, municipal councilor in Mbour and uncle of one of the 38-year-old castaways.
« Some time ago, these young people were leaving from Gambia or elsewhere, but what happened yesterday is that they left from the beach of Mbour itself. In Africa and in Senegal in particular, we always have difficulties in obtaining visas. And it is not usually onlookers who undertake the journey, it is children who manage, who have a job, who should normally travel without having to experience certain adventures. ” he said.
And while the search for the bodies of the castaways continued, the navy intercepted two pirogues carrying 421 candidates for illegal emigration, including 20 children.
By RFI
2024-09-09 23:55:08