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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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Macron Visits Cyclone-devastated Mayotte as Residents Plead for Water, Food

France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
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Macron Visits Cyclone-devastated Mayotte as Residents Plead for Water, Food

France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
France's president Emmanuel Macron embraces a woman as he speaks with local residents during his visit at the kavani district in Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a first-hand account of devastation across the French territory.
“Mayotte is demolished,” Assane Haloi, a security agent, told Macron after he stepped off the plane.
Macron had been moving along in a line of people greeting him when Haloi grasped his hand and spoke for a minute about the harrowing conditions the islands faced without bare essentials since Saturday when the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory off the coast of Africa, The Associated Press reported.
“We are without water, without electricity, there is nowhere to go because everything is demolished,” she said. “We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep.”
At least 31 people have died and more than 1,500 people were injured, more than 200 critically, French authorities said. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died.
Macron arrived shortly after The Associated Press and other journalists from outside were able to reach Mayotte to provide accounts from survivors of the horror over the weekend when winds howled above 220 kph (136 mph) and peeled the roofs and walls from homes that collapsed around the people sheltering inside.
In the shantytown Kaweni on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, a swath of hillside homes was reduced to scraps of corrugated metal, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of timber marking the frame where homes once stood.
“Those of us who are here are still in shock, but God let us live,” Nassirou Hamidouni said as he dug in the rubble of his former home. “We are sad. We can’t sleep because of all the houses that have been destroyed.”
Macron took a helicopter tour of the damage and then met with patients and staff at a hospital, who described having to work around the clock.
A woman who works in the psychological unit became emotional as she described staff becoming exhausted and unable to care for patients.
“Help the hospital staff, help the hospital,” the woman, whose name was not known, pleaded. “Everyone from top to bottom is wiped out.”
Macron, who was wearing a traditional red, black and gold Mayotte scarf over his white dress shirt and tie, put his hand on her shoulder as she wiped away tears.
He sought to reassure people that tons of food, medical aid and additional rescuers arrived with him and more help was on its way in the form of water and a field hospital to be set up Friday. A navy ship brought 180 tons of aid and equipment, the French military said.
But the visit took a testy turn when Macron was criticized for being out of touch about what was happening on the ground by a man who said they had gone six days in Ouangani without water or a visit from rescue services.
The president said it took the military four days to clear the roads and get a plan in place to deliver aid.
"If you want to continue shouting to get airtime,” Macron said as he was cut off, by the man saying he didn't intend to shout. “If you are interested in my response, if not I will walk away.”