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French Coastguard: One Dead after Migrant Dinghy Flounders in Channel

(FILES) This photograph taken on August 29, 2023, shows a French gendarme vehicle patrolling near the beach of Gravelines, northern France, to prevent migrants from being smuggled to Britain. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on August 29, 2023, shows a French gendarme vehicle patrolling near the beach of Gravelines, northern France, to prevent migrants from being smuggled to Britain. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
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French Coastguard: One Dead after Migrant Dinghy Flounders in Channel

(FILES) This photograph taken on August 29, 2023, shows a French gendarme vehicle patrolling near the beach of Gravelines, northern France, to prevent migrants from being smuggled to Britain. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on August 29, 2023, shows a French gendarme vehicle patrolling near the beach of Gravelines, northern France, to prevent migrants from being smuggled to Britain. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)

One person drowned and another is critically ill after an inflatable dinghy carrying 66 migrants towards Britain ran into difficulty off the northern French coast, the French coastguard said on Friday.

French rescuers reached the distressed boat at about 1 a.m. (0000 GMT) and found that one of its inflatable tubes had deflated. A number of migrants were in the cold waters of the Channel, Reuters reported.

Two unconscious people were pulled from the sea. One was airlifted to the French port city of Calais, while the other could not be revived, the coastguard said in a statement.

Search operations were continuing, it added.

The Channel, which separates Britain and continental Europe, is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

More than 29,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing in small boats this year, according to Migration Watch UK, representing a fall of about one third in 2022.

In November 2021 at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank in the Channel, the highest known number of deaths in a single incident.

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WHO Says Suspected Outbreak of Marburg Disease Kills 8 in Tanzania

FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses a press conference on the Marburg virus outbreak at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses a press conference on the Marburg virus outbreak at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana/File Photo
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WHO Says Suspected Outbreak of Marburg Disease Kills 8 in Tanzania

FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses a press conference on the Marburg virus outbreak at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses a press conference on the Marburg virus outbreak at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali, Rwanda, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana/File Photo

The World Health Organization said Wednesday an outbreak of suspected Marburg disease has killed eight people in a remote part of northern Tanzania.
“We are aware of 9 cases so far, including 8 people who have died,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “We would expect further cases in coming days as disease surveillance improves,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets.
Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill with the disease. Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases death from extreme blood loss. There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg.
WHO said its risk assessment for the suspected outbreak in Tanzania is high at national and regional levels but low globally. There was no immediate comment from Tanzanian health authorities.
An outbreak of Marburg in Rwanda, first reported on Sept. 27, was declared over on Dec. 20. Rwandan officials reported a total of 15 deaths and 66 cases, with the majority of those affected healthcare workers who handled the first patients.