Month: September 2023

The Senegalese Navy said it had intercepted two wooden boats carrying 272 would-be migrants Friday 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of the capital Dakar. 

Seven children and 16 women were among the passengers who were taken back to a navy base in Dakar, it said in an online post Saturday. 

It shared a photo of a brightly painted fishing vessel on the open ocean, overloaded with people with no shelter from the elements. 

Thousands of migrants brave the hundreds of miles of ocean separating Africa from Europe each year in a desperate search for a better life. Summer is the busiest period for crossings. 

At least 559 people died attempting to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year with 15 shipwrecks recorded, according to the International Organization for Migration. 

In August, only 37 survived after a migrant boat carrying 101 people from Senegal had been adrift in the ocean without fuel for weeks. 

Slovak liberal party Progressive Slovakia (PS) led a parliamentary election Saturday, initial exit polls showed, potentially blocking former leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico from returning his party to power after he pledged to end military aid for neighboring Ukraine. 

Progressive Slovakia was seen winning 23.5% of the vote, ahead of 21.9% for three-time prime minister Fico’s SMER-SSD party, an exit poll by Focus agency for TV Markiza showed. 

A second exit poll by Median agency for public broadcaster RTVS showed the liberal party winning 19.97% of the vote, ahead of 19.09% for Fico’s party in the nation of 5.5 million. 

The PS party has advocated maintaining Slovakia’s strong backing for Ukraine and would likely follow a liberal line within the European Union on issues such as majority voting to make the bloc more flexible, green policies and LGBTQ+ rights. 

A government led by Fico and his SMER-SSD party would mean Slovakia’s joining Hungary in challenging the European Union’s consensus on support for Ukraine, just as the bloc looks to maintain unity in opposing Russia’s invasion. 

The leading party to emerge from the election is due to get a first shot at forming a government, with no party projected to win an outright majority. 

Forming a new government will hinge on results for over half a dozen smaller parties, from libertarians to far-right extremists.