ANTANANRIVO, Madagascar: The death toll from the sinking of a boat carrying migrants from Madagascar to the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte has risen to 34, authorities said on Tuesday.
The boat, which was carrying about 60 passengers, sank off the island’s northern coast on Saturday night.
Initial reports on Monday put the death toll at just over 20.
Bodies recovered by the authorities on Tuesday, including those of three children, were “in an advanced state of decomposition,” Jean Edmond Randrianantenaina, director of the Port, Maritime and River Agency (APMF) told AFP.
An investigation is underway.
All but one of the 24 survivors rescued Saturday night by fishermen reportedly fled before the authorities arrived, and that was a young pregnant woman.
According to a source at the gendarmerie, the boat capsized due to overloading.
The APMF had in a statement Monday that the dead had “clandestinely taken a boat headed to Mayotte, but that sank.”
Investigators want to track down the smugglers, who are suspected to be among the survivors on the run, and establish how they operated.
Many migrants try each year to reach the French territory of Mayotte, which lies north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
In 2021, more than 6,500 people were detained trying to enter the territory clandestinely, according to French authorities.
There are no reliable statistics on how many people have lost their lives attempting such crossings. A French senate report published in the early 2000s estimated that around 1,000 people were dying each year.
Madagascar migrants death toll hits 34 after boat sank
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Madagascar migrants death toll hits 34 after boat sank
- The boat, which was carrying about 60 passengers, sank off the island's northern coast on Saturday night
- Initial reports on Monday put the death toll at just over 20
California joins UN health network following US departure from WHO
- California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people
CALIFORNIA: California said on Friday it will become the first US state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.
The network, comprised of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. The state’s decision to join the network comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency’s management of the pandemic.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.
“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”
The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, where they discussed collaborating to detect and respond to emerging public health threats.
The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.
