At least 21 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off ‌the Senegalese coast, the Interior Ministry said this Sunday.

Authorities had rescued one survivor and found 21 bodies as of Saturday evening, ⁠the Ministry said in a statement on X.

The accident occurred off Kebemer, a town about 180 km north of Dakar.

Search and rescue operations were continuing as authorities looked for possible additional survivors.

The boat was ‌carrying ⁠people seeking to migrate irregularly, the statement said. It did not say how many were on board.

Thousands of ⁠people have died in recent years attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from West ⁠Africa, including 635 in the first five months of this ⁠year, according to migrant rights group Walking Borders.

–Reuters–