Senegal migrant boat capsizes, killing 39; rights group wants inquiry

A Senegalese human rights group is demanding a parliamentary inquiry after a migrant boat capsized off the country's coast, killing at least 39 people. Only one passenger was rescued alive, and several others are still believed to be missing. The pirogue-type boat left Saint-Louis in northern Senegal on Sunday, headed for the Spanish coast, and overturned off the Lompoul dunes in the Kebemer department, about 180km (112 miles) north of Dakar, according to state media.

The toll grew as emergency crews kept searching. Initial reports put the dead at 21. That figure climbed to 34, then to 39 as more bodies were recovered.

Action for Human Rights and Friendship (ADHA) said it had seen no durable payoff from government spending on the crisis. The group cited 300,000 euros ($336,000) announced for the Navy and the training of more than 300 agents, and denounced what it called a lack of lasting results as irregular arrivals to the Canaries keep rising. In its statement, ADHA said it is no longer enough to deplore shipwrecks, announce measures and count interceptions.

Senegal's Ministry of the Interior and Public Security said the boat was carrying people seeking to migrate irregularly, but did not say how many were on board. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye offered condolences and pledged to clamp down on the traffickers behind the dangerous journeys.

The route from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands has killed thousands in recent years, including 635 people in the first five months of this year, according to the migrant rights group Walking Borders. Spanish authorities on the Canary Island of El Hierro declared an emergency on Saturday after a surge in arrivals, saying more than 3,300 people had reached the island on about 30 boats since the start of November.