No fewer than seven individuals have died and numerous others remain unaccounted for after a vessel transporting around 200 people seeking to enter the European continent overturned near the shoreline of Gambia, officials state.
The craft flipped in the early hours of Thursday near the village of Jinack in the North Bank Region and it was afterwards located "stranded on a sandbar", the Gambian military authorities announced officially.
Nearly one hundred people have been saved to date and a search is continuing for other passengers who were traveling on the shipwrecked vessel that was bound for the Spanish Canary Islands.
The hazardous trip over the Atlantic Ocean has emerged as a rising pathway for migrants from Africa attempting to get to Europe.
Close to 47,000 people arrived at the Spanish archipelago in 2024 and data indicates in excess of 9,000 people perished during the journey.
Rescue Operation
Following the Wednesday incident, the navy began a search-and-rescue operation, using a number of military boats and a commercial fishing craft that joined the effort, the defence ministry said.
Reports indicate a number of those who died are foreign nationals and that their nationalities are still under confirmation.
The remains of the seven victims who drowned have been recovered, and a dozen of the saved are described as being in critical condition and undergoing emergency treatment.
A Common Migration Route
This West African nation is a common pathway taken by migrants attempting to enter the EU, often on dangerous journeys across ocean and terrain.
In recent years, the European bloc has reached agreements with multiple Maghreb states aimed at curtailing illegal migration.
