At least 25 dead after traffickers capsize boat in Comoros

MADRID 5 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 25 people have died after the boat they were on was “deliberately” capsized by traffickers off the islands of Anjouan and Mayotte, in the Comoros archipelago, the International Organization for Migration reported this Monday ( IOM).

The organization, which regretted the event, explained that the shipwreck took place on Friday night. According to survivors, the boat was carrying around 30 people of different nationalities, including seven women, four minors and two babies. The five survivors were rescued on Saturday morning by fishermen.

“The accident follows two similar tragedies in the same area in the last three months,” said the IOM, which recalled that in September a ship with twelve people on board (including children and a pregnant woman) left Anjouan. and never arrived” in Mayotte, while in August eight people, including a twelve-year-old boy, lost their lives “in a similar incident.

Thousands of people have died on this migratory route in their attempt to reach the island of Mayotte. In 2012, a French Senate report estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 people had died trying to cross from Comoros to Mayotte since 1995, but that this figure could be much higher.