At least 25 people have died in a shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, between the Comoros archipelago and the French the island of Mayotte after their boat was sunk, reported "France Press", quoted by NOVA, referring to a statement by the regional branch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
"IOM Comoros is saddened to learn of the deaths of at least 25 people after their boat was deliberately sunk by traffickers off the Comoros Islands, between Anjouan and Mayotte, on Friday evening,'' the UN agency said in a statement.
According to the accounts of the five survivors, the boat was carrying about thirty people, including seven women, two children aged six and two, and two infants. They were rescued by fishermen on Saturday morning.
The Comoros Islands and Mayotte are only 70 kilometers away. After Comoros declared independence, the island of Mayotte chose to remain part of France in two referendums - in 1974 and 1976. In 2011, the island became a French overseas department. In the past three months, two other fatal shipwrecks involving "kwasa kwasa" have occurred in the same area. - the name of the Comorian pirogi. In September, a boat with twelve men never reached Mayotte after setting sail from the island of Anjouan. A month later, in August, eight people died under similar circumstances.
The sea route between Comoros and Mayotte is a particularly dangerous migration route. A 2012 report stated that between 1995 and 2012, between 7,000 and 12,000 people died or went missing trying to cross the Indian Ocean. According to the latest data from the French National Statistics Institute from 2017, almost half of Mayotte's population are foreigners. Of these 123,000 people, 95% are Comorian citizens.