No fewer than seven individuals have died and numerous others are lost following a craft ferrying around 200 people trying to get to European shores sank near the shoreline of The Gambia, officials state.
The craft flipped on Wednesday midnight close to Jinack in the northern bank region and it was afterwards located "stranded on a sandbar", the Gambian military authorities stated in a release.
96 individuals have been saved to date and a search is continuing for those still missing who were on board the shipwrecked vessel that was en route to Spain's Canary Islands.
The dangerous voyage over the Atlantic has emerged as a rising pathway for African asylum seekers trying to reach the EU.
Nearly 47,000 individuals reached the Canaries in 2024 and figures suggest more than 9,000 migrants perished during the journey.
Search and Rescue Efforts
In the aftermath of the disaster, The Gambian Navy began a search operation, involving a number of military boats and a commercial fishing craft that came to assist, the defense officials said.
Reports indicate some of the deceased are not from The Gambia and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The remains of the seven individuals who perished at sea were found, and a dozen of the saved are described as being in grave health and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Frequent Pathway
The Gambia is a frequent corridor taken by migrants seeking to get to the EU, frequently via perilous trips by sea and land.
In recent years, the European bloc has established pacts with a number of North African nations designed to reducing illegal migration.
