One person died and 13 others were missing Thursday after a ship carrying 17 Moroccan immigrants sank off the coast of Western Sahara on July 9th, the Al Ahdath al-Maghribya newspaper reported.
Three people survived the accident, after the boat capsized during a storm near Boujdour, 200 kilometers south of Laayoun, the capital of Western Sahara, the newspaper said in its Thursday edition.
The immigrants wanted to reach Spain's Canary Islands, just off Western Sahara's coast.
Western Sahara is a disputed territory annexed by Morocco 25 years ago.
Authorities continued their search for the missing people on Thursday.
Sources contacted by telephone in Agadir and in Boujdour told AFP that the three people who survived came from a village 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Marrakesh.
People trying to escape to Europe from Africa often use Western Sahara to get to the Canary Islands. The area is patrolled less frequently that northern Africa's coast - RABAT (AFP)
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