Nearly 70 killed after boat capsizes en route to Spain

The makeshift boat was carrying about 80 people when it capsized on December 19, Malian authorities said.

At least 69 people, including 25 Malians, died after a boat heading from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands capsized off Morocco, Malian authorities have said.

The makeshift boat was carrying about 80 people when it capsized on December 19; only 11 people survived, the Ministry of Malians Abroad said in a statement on Thursday, after collecting information to reconstruct the incident. A crisis unit has been set up to monitor the situation, it added.

Several of the Malian victims are from the Kayes region in the west of the country, according to Doulaye Keita, adviser to the ministry, in a statement to The Associated Press news agency on Friday.

“Among the 25 Malians dead, there are 8 Malians from my commune,” Mamadou Siby, the mayor of the commune of Marena in the Kayes region, told AP.

“These dead young men left my commune seven months ago to work in the construction industry in Mauritania. Unfortunately, they were in contact with their friends in Europe and America, who encouraged them to come to these countries, and in most cases, they took the perilous journey without even informing their families back home.”