Eleven bodies found on boat in eastern Caribbean
Police have found a boat beached on the Grenadine island of Canouan carrying the remains of what they believed to be 11 people who may be from Mali.
"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."
Local police received a report about the 13-metre vessel that washed ashore in Little Bay on Canouan, to the south of the archipelago Caribbean nation.
Simmons said the remains had been transported to mainland St Vincent pending further forensic and investigative procedures.
In nearby St Kitts and Nevis, authorities in January said they had discovered a vessel where they found the bodies of 19 people who they estimated had been at sea for a long period due to the advanced stage of decomposition.
They also found identifications suggesting some of those passengers also came from Mali, a landlocked West African nation some 6200km east across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast is among the world's most dangerous maritime routes, with strong westerly currents and winds capable of driving vessels far off course.
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