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Senegalese Migrants Die in Boat Capsize Off Morocco

Migrants scene on a boat [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
Migrants scene on a boat [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
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Senegalese Migrants Die in Boat Capsize Off Morocco

Migrants scene on a boat [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
Migrants scene on a boat [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]

At least 13 Senegalese migrants from the same town died when their boat sank off the coast of Morocco late last week, the town's mayor told AFP on Thursday.

The news comes amid heightened attention on the Atlantic migration route -- from the coast of West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands -- after several boats have sunk or gone missing there in recent weeks.

Oumar Cisse, mayor of Rufisque, near the capital Dakar, told AFP 13 residents of the town had perished.

He said he had spoken to survivors who told him a total of 18 people had died.

"They were in a 63-person pirogue that capsized," he said, referring to the long wooden fishing boats often used for irregular migrant crossings.

"The survivors are being looked after in the municipality of Dakhla", in southern Morocco, he added.

Cisse said he was working with local authorities to repatriate survivors.

He said six people from his town had also been hospitalized.

Senegal's President Macky Sall "paid tribute to the memory of those who died in the recent accidents at sea", according to a government statement late Thursday.

He called on government to intensify controls at potential departure sites, as well as to deploy more "measures of surveillance, awareness-raising and support for youth" and reinforce public programs that "combat clandestine emigration".

On Tuesday, Morocco's navy said it had rescued nearly 900 irregular migrants -- 400 of whom were in its territorial waters -- in a one-week period this month.

Most were from sub-Saharan Africa.

At least 14 people died eight days ago when a pirogue capsized off the Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, near the border with Mauritania.

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".