Senegal shipwreck death toll rises to 39 as migrant boat sinks off Kébémer

The toll and the search

Senegalese authorities raised the death toll from the shipwreck near Lompoul to 39 on Monday, 9 November, according to the state news agency APS. Only one person has been pulled alive from the water so far. Rescue teams recovered four more bodies during the day, after three days of search and rescue operations along a coastline of about 25 kilometres that is difficult to reach. Of the dead, 24 have been identified and returned to their families, while 11 remain unidentified, as the last four bodies were badly decomposed. Investigators have opened an inquiry into the circumstances of the disaster in the Kébémer department of Louga region, and Governor Ndèye Nguénar Mbodj visited the site on Sunday to oversee identification and preservation of the bodies.

How the boat sank

The small wooden boat had left Saint-Louis in northern Senegal and was heading for Spain's Canary Islands when it capsized. The reports differ on the date: Diouf told AFP the shipwreck happened on Friday, 6 November, while Notícias ao Minuto says the boat capsized on Sunday, 8 November, near Kébémer. The Interior Ministry said on Saturday, 7 November, that 21 people had died and one survived, without specifying how many were on board. Notícias ao Minuto, citing Senegalese police, put the passengers at 40 Senegalese and 93 Gambians, while other reports said the nationalities of the people aboard had yet to be established.

Government response

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye expressed condolences to the victims' families and urged Senegalese citizens not to risk their lives on such crossings. In a statement posted on X, he pledged to step up efforts to dismantle the networks that organise the journeys, saying:

We will relentlessly continue the fight against those who organise these crossings and the work that gives our young people reasons to hope here.

Interior Minister Mouhmamadou Makhtar Cissé was due to travel to Lompoul on Monday, 9 November, to convey the state's compassion and solidarity to the families, according to a ministry communiqué. Faye has also said that all state authorities and resources had been mobilised to find the missing, care for survivors and support the families.

Pressure on the Canary Islands route

On Saturday, 7 November, a state of emergency was declared on the Spanish island of El Hierro after a sharp rise in migrant arrivals. Local authorities said more than 3,300 people had reached the island in about 30 boats since the beginning of November. El País reports that half of the boats arriving at El Hierro between October and November came from Senegal, which it describes as the main departure country for cayucos heading to the Canaries over the last month. Walking Borders recorded 635 deaths on the Atlantic route between January and May 2026, the highest toll among the routes it monitors, and estimates that about 21 people died for every 100 who reached the Canary Islands in the period it tracked.

A second shipwreck off Crete

Greek authorities also reported deadly migrant boat accidents off Crete, with at least 20 people dead and two still missing, according to ERTnews on Monday, 9 November, which said 133 people had been rescued. The first wreck happened on Saturday evening, 7 November, a few nautical miles off the south Cretan village of Kali Limenes, where the Greek coast guard rescued 28 Sudanese nationals and recovered eight bodies. Survivors told authorities the migrants had sailed from Libya days earlier and paid between 1,000 and 2,500 euros for the crossing. A 16-year-old and a 28-year-old man were detained as alleged smugglers. In the same area, a coast guard patrol rescued 18 people from another migrant boat after a passing container ship alerted authorities, and recovered twelve bodies.