Deadly shipwreck off the coast of Senegal

Thirty-six hours after the shipwreck, rescue boats continue to come and go to fish out and bring back the bodies of the victims. Their pirogue capsized with about a hundred passengers on board, who were trying to reach the Canary Islands (Spain), and therefore the European Union. The families of the missing come to Mbour (Senegal), to try to recognize their loved ones among the dead. “My older brother is one of the victims, but we haven’t found him yet (…) He wanted to go to Spain”said one of them.

At sea, three kilometers away, the pirogue is still drifting, half submerged. Inside, bags of rice, semolina and cakes that were supposed to allow the passengers to eat during the crossing. Six days in the Atlantic Ocean. An extremely dangerous journey to the Canary Islands. On the bow of the boat, a French flag had been hand-painted. Maguette Gueye is a fisherman, he is one of the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy. He was able to save eight people: “The first person I rescued was a man, he was quite young. Then I continued, I found a woman, and another woman was calling me from the other side. Since I was born, I have never seen that.”