Comoros: At Least 25 Inmigrants Dead After a Massive Shipwreck
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November 5, 2024 Hour: 2:31 pm
At least 25 migrants died last Friday off the coast of the Comoros, a three-island country in south-east Africa, after “their boat deliberately fell into the hands of traffickers,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported.
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The vessel was capsized at night between the Comorian island of Anjouan and the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean.
“According to the survivors, about 30 persons of different nationalities were travelling on the boat, including 7 women, 4 minors (2 children aged 6 and 2) and 2 babies. The five survivors were rescued by fishermen on Saturday morning,” IOM said in a statement.
The accident followed two similar tragedies in the same area in the past three months, according to the UN agency.
In September, a boat with 12 people on board, including two children and a pregnant woman, left the coast of Anjouan and never reached Mayotte.
In August, 8 people were killed in a similar incident, including a 12-year-old boy.
Thousands of people have died on this migration route in their attempt to reach the island of Mayotte.
In 2012, a report by the French Senate estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 people had died trying to cross from the Comoros to Mayotte since 1995, but this figure could be much higher, IOM recalled.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: EFE-AA