Over 14 Migrants Die As Boat Goes Up In Flames In Senegal

Over 14 Migrants Die As Boat Goes Up In Flames In Senegal
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No fewer than 14 migrants, including Nigerians, have reportedly died following a fire incident that razed a boat in south Senegal on Wednesday.

Information reaching the desk of Africa Daily News, New York has it that about 21 people were injured as four of them suffered second-degree burns as they embarked on a journey to Spanish Canary Islands before the boat caught fire.

The mayor of the coastal town, Kafountine in Casamance, David Diatta said that the fire incident occurred yesterday.

Read Also: Morocco Slams Court Case On 65 Migrants For Crossing To Melilla

‘We’ve been able to recover 14 bodies. The toll will likely rise,’ Diatta said, according to InfoMigrants.

The boat carried 140 people including Nigerians, Guineans, Gambians and Senegalese, and almost 90 people survived the inferno were able to be identified.

‘There were Guineans, Nigerians, Gambians, and Senegalese. The survivors are saying that the fire was started by someone smoking a cigarette where the fuel was kept,’ the mayor added.

Africa Daily News, New York reports that Police have launched investigations into the incident.

In a related development, no fewer than 46 migrants have been discovered dead in and around a large trailer truck that was abandoned on the roadside on the outskirts of the Texas city of San Antonio.

The grim discovery was one of the worst disasters involving migrants in the United States in recent years — and came five years after a similar deadly incident in the same central Texas city, a few hours from the Mexican border.

‘At this time we have processed approximately 46 bodies that have been triaged and tagged and declared deceased,’ San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told reporters.

He went on to reveal that about 16 people had been transported to the hospital alive and conscious — 12 adults and four children.

There were no initial details on the age or nationalities of the deceased.

‘The patients that we saw were hot to the touch, they were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, no signs of water in the vehicle, it was a refrigerated tractor-trailer but there was no visible working A/C unit on that rig,’ Hood said.

Officials have confirmed that about three people so far been arrseed over the incident.

San Antonio, which lies about 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the border, is a major transit route for people smugglers.

Africa Daily News, New York

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