Twenty-two people were killed when two boats carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, an official said Saturday.
Somalia’s ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Abdullahi Warfa, told state radio Mogadishu that the boats were carrying 70 passengers, all Somali nationals.
He did not give a date for the incident but confirmed that the bodies were recovered on Saturday.
Warfa said 48 passengers were rescued by fishermen and taken for treatment. He also added:
“An investigation is underway and we have the names of the victims and we will share them through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
The government did not specify the cause of the accident.
The Indian Ocean has seen an increase in migrant deaths in 2024. At least 24 people died after a boat sank off the coast of Comoros, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said earlier this month.
The UN agency said the victims included women, children and babies and that the boat was deliberately capsized by traffickers.
In September, a boat carrying 12 people, including two children and a mother-to-be, set sail from the coast of Anjouan in the Comoros island chain and did not reach Mayotte, an island in the Comoros archipelago that has been a department of France since 2011.
