Migrant boat capsizes off Senegal, leaving at least 12 dead

• Boat carrying around 100 people capsizes near Mbour.
• 32 survivors reported, others flee before rescuers arrive.
• President Faye offers condolences, search for survivors continues.

At least 12 people died on Wednesday after a boat filled with migrants seeking to reach Europe sank off the coast of Senegal, security sources said.

The coastal west African country is one of the main departure points for the thousands of Africans who for years have been taking the perilous Atlantic route to reach Europe, primarily via the Spanish Canary Islands, aboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.

The latest sinking came in the waters off the town of Mbour when a boat loaded with around 100 people capsized, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Twelve bodies were retrieved,” the source said.

A second security source confirmed the toll to AFP.

“There were 32 survivors. The others probably fled” before rescue services arrived on the scene, one source told AFP.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye expressed condolences to the families of the victims in a social media post on Wednesday.

“We share their sorrow and their pain while the search continues to find any survivors,” he said.

On Tuesday, police intercepted 123 migrants aboard a boat in Senegal’s Thies region.