Captain of migrant boat tragedy in Senegal turns himself in; death toll rises to 26

DAKAR, Senegal — The captain of a migrant boat that capsized off the coast of Senegal over the weekend has been arrested, local authorities said on Tuesday, as the death toll rose to 26.

Cheikh Sall, the owner and captain of the boat, turned himself in on Monday, district prefect Amadou Diop told the Associated Press.

The death toll from the capsizing has risen to 26, the Senegalese Navy announced on Tuesday on the social media platform X.

The fishing boat left the town of Mbour, nearly 80 kilometers south of the capital Dakar, for Europe on Sunday afternoon before capsizing a few miles off the coast.

In recent years, the number of migrants leaving West Africa via Senegal has risen sharply. Many are fleeing conflict, poverty and a lack of job opportunities. Most of them are heading to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa that serves as a springboard to continental Europe.

According to statistics from the Spanish Interior Ministry, more than 22,300 people have landed on the Canary Islands since the beginning of the year, 126 percent more than in the same period last year.

Last month, the Senegalese army said it had arrested 453 migrants and “members of smuggling networks” during a 12-day patrol operation along the coast. More than half of those arrested were Senegalese citizens, the army said.

In July, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mainly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off the coast of Mauritania. More than a dozen people died and at least 150 others are missing.

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. While there is no exact death toll due to a lack of information on departures from West Africa, Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates that the number of victims this year alone is in the several thousand.

Migrant ships that become lost or in distress often disappear in the Atlantic Ocean. Some drift for months at sea until they are found in the Caribbean and Latin America with only human remains on board.

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