SAINT LOUIS: The Senegalese navy has intercepted two more boats carrying 262 migrants taking the total to five vessels stopped and over 600 people rescued by a navy patrol boat in the Atlantic Ocean since Thursday, Western media reported on Sunday.
26 women, 13 minors rescued
The navy in a post on social media platform X, said 26 women and 13 minors were included among those resecued.
During the summer season, thousands of migrants risk their lives and take boats from Africa to Europe each year for a better life.
In August, only 37 could be rescued after a migrant boat carrying 101 people from Senegal was left out of fuel and had been adrift in the ocean for weeks.
From Senegal, they leave fishing villages and towns in boats overloaded with people and without any safety measures.
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On Saturday a boat carrying more than a hundred people was forced to come back to the coast in Saint Louis due to strong winds.
Videos shared on X showed the boat stuck in strong waves finding it difficult to make its way to the coast. Dozens of people could be seen jumping off the boat and trying to swim to the shore.
Fallou Ndir, a 19-year-old Saint Louis resident told media that he was chilling with his friends at the beach when suddenly saw a boat of migrants coming to the shore. He said that many of them started jumping into the water when they got closer to the land.
He added the migrants jumped off the boat to avert the arrest by the navy adding that after reaching the shore they disappeared in villages.
