Two migrants die, 88 saved off Cape Verde

By AFP
January 17, 2023

PRAIA, Cape Verde: Rescue teams in Cape Verde have saved 88 migrants adrift in a canoe, but two others aboard the vessel have died, the national press agency Inforpress reported.

The motorised canoe, known as a pirogue, was spotted by a lighthouse keeper on Saturday on the coast of the northern island of Boa Vista, it said. The migrants come from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, Inforpress said on Sunday, quoting local police.

Six have been hospitalised with dehydration, it said. Cape Verde is a former Portuguese archipelago located around 600-km off the coast of West Africa.