The bodies of 11 people believed to be hailing from the West African nation of Mali were found in a boat that had washed ashore in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, police in the Caribbean nation announced on Tuesday.
Per Reuters, the boat in question was found on the shore of Canouan island, and authorities said they are now trying to determine their identities.
“Several passports were recovered at the scene which appear to be from the Republic of Mali,” Superintendent Junior Simmons said in a video message. “The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, and some were not fully intact.”
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Authorities said they found the 45-foot vessel at the location after they received a report about that sighting on Monday. Simmons said the bodies had since been taking to the mainland St. Vincent to undergo additional forensic evaluation and investigations.
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The discovery of the bodies came after authorities in St. Kitts and Nevis announced in January that they had similarly found a vessel containing the remains of 19 people whose decomposition stage had significantly exacerbated because it was assessed that they had been at sea for a long time, Reuters reported.
The identifications that authorities found also implied that the deceased individuals were Malian nationals. Situated off the coast of West Africa, the Atlantic Ocean is one of the most dangerous maritime routes in the world, and vessels can go off their routes because of strong sea currents.
In 2021, Trinidad and Tobago police said a boat that was discovered on the sister island of Tobago with 14 dead men, a skull as well as other skeletal remains, came from the northwestern African country of Mauritania, Face2Face Africa reported at the time.
According to local news outlet Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, the boat was found floating some four miles away from the town of Belle Garden. The bodies, which were moved to a mortuary at a local hospital, were decomposed at the time of discovery. The boat was said to have been discovered by fishermen.
