A night-time shipwreck off Gambia has left several dead and many missing. Photo / 123RF
A night-time shipwreck off Gambia has left several dead and many missing. Photo / 123RF
At least seven people have drowned and many are missing after a boat carrying some 200 people capsized during the night off the coast of Gambia, the country’s government said.
At least 96 were rescued, many of whom were seriously wounded. “The government of The Gambia is aware of atragic maritime incident involving a boat allegedly transporting over 200 migrants, reported to have capsized around midnight on December 31, 2025, in the vicinity of Jinack Village in the North Bank Region,” it said in a statement.
Alerted by a distress call, the Gambian Navy launched a search and rescue operation after midnight, involving several naval vessels and a fishing boat that came to assist, according to the statement.
The shipwrecked vessel was later found aground on a sandbank.
Several of the victims have been identified as not being of Gambian nationality and the authorities are currently verifying their identity, the statement added.
Numerous Africans seek to reach Spain’s Canary Islands as a gateway to continental Europe, taking perilous voyages into the Atlantic.
The recent strengthening of maritime controls in Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco has led to pirogues headed to the Canaries to depart from even further away, particularly from the coasts of Gambia and Guinea-Conakry, lengthening the time spent at sea and the dangers.
