A rescue plane has located what could be one of the boats that has been missing for over two weeks with around 300 people on.
A boat with around 200 people has been found more than 80 miles south of Gran Canaria by a Spanish Maritime Rescue Service plane. The boat has the same characteristics as one of the boats reported missing.
In the pictures, a multi-coloured Senegalese pirogue, a kind of long canoe, can be seen. Spanish Maritime Rescue Service wrote on Twitter that a rescue boat was launched but will take two hours to reach the boat.
Two boats, carrying a total of about 100 people, and the third, with about 200 on board, have been missing for 15 days, according to Walking Borders (Caminando Fronteras).
The third boat left Senegal on June 27 with about 200 people aboard. The located boat may be one of the three, although it has not been officially confirmed.
A woman whose 19 and 24-year-old sons left on one of the boats from Mbour in June told the Associated Press they had a goal of trying to pull the family out of poverty.
Daw Demba, 48, said she discovered her sons' secret plans days before they left and tried to convince them not to. They assured her it would be safe because the captain had made the trip safely multiple times, she said.
“I am desperate to hear the voices of my sons. I am convinced they are still alive," Demba said through tears in a phone interview from her home in Mbour. "Every moment, every second, I am still believing.”
Before they departed, she armed her sons, Massou Seck and Serigne Galaye Seck, with traditional spiritual items, including a bottle of water that had been blessed and Quranic paper with their names written on it for protection.
Helena Maleno Garzon, the coordinator for the aid group Walking Borders, said: "Imagine if there [were] 300 American people missing at sea. What (would) happen? Many planes will look for them."
