Overview

• The St. Kitts and Nevis Coast Guard discovered a partially submerged boat containing at least 19 decomposing bodies on Wednesday morning.
• Police and medical officials are working to identify the victims, but the advanced state of decomposition has made this challenging.
• The vessel, described as a fishing boat not typically seen in the Caribbean, is suspected to have originated from the West African coast.
• This incident follows the discovery of a separate boat with five bodies near Trinidad and Tobago days earlier, though authorities have not confirmed any connection between the two cases.
• Investigators note similarities between this vessel and a 2021 case where a boat with 15 bodies, also believed to have drifted from Africa, was found in the region.