Banjul, Gambia
Reuters
—
Seven bodies have been recovered and 96 people rescued after a boat potentially carrying more than 200 migrants capsized in northwestern Gambia overnight, the country’s defense ministry said on Thursday, adding that search and recovery operations continued.
It was the latest fatal incident on one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes, frequented by West Africans trying to reach Spain, mainly via the Canary Islands.
The boat was reported to have capsized near a village in Gambia’s North Bank region around midnight and was later found “stranded on a sandbar,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The rescue operation that followed involved three Navy high-speed boats, a coastal patrol boat and a “local fishing canoe” with a volunteer pilot, the statement said.
Ten of the rescued migrants were in critical condition and receiving emergency treatment, the statement said, without disclosing their nationalities.
According to the European Union, more than 46,000 illegal migrants will reach the Canary Islands in 2024, a record high. More than 10,000 people have died attempting the journey, a 58% increase compared to 2023, according to human rights group Caminando Fronteras.
But in the first 11 months of 2025, irregular migration into the EU along the West African route fell by 60%, according to the EU’s border agency Frontex.
Frontex said the decline was mainly due to countries of origin stepping up prevention efforts in cooperation with EU member states.
In August 2025, at least 70 people were killed when a boat believed to have left Gambia carrying migrants capsized in one of the deadliest accidents in recent years.
