New York Daily News
140 dead in migrant ship sinking off Senegal
BABACAR DIONE
A weekend migrant shipwreck off Senegal has left at least 140 people dead, making it the deadliest so far this year, the International Organization for Migration confirmed Thursday.
About 200 passengers set off in the vessel from the Senegalese town of Mbour on Saturday, heading for Spain’s Canary Islands, but the boat soon caught fire and sank off Senegal’s northwestern coast near Saint Louis. Fifty-nine passengers were saved, IOM said.
The deadliest shipwreck comes as the number of boats trying to reach the Canary Islands from Senegal’s shores has “significantly increased in recent weeks,” the U.N. migration agency said.
