JOHANNESBURG

At least 69 people, including 25 Malian migrants, have died after a boat sank off the coast of Morocco territorial waters on Dec. 19, a Malian government statement said Thursday.

The minister for Malians living abroad and for African integration, Mossa Ag Attaher, said in a statement the makeshift boat the migrants were traveling on claimed several lives, including Malians.

“Twenty-five young Malians are unfortunately formally identified among the victims,’’ the statement said.

At least 69 people are reported to have died on the migrant boat which was transporting 80 passengers. Eleven survivors are Malian nationals.

Decades of conflict, poverty and unemployment forces hundreds of youth from the Sahel and other parts of the continent to take deadly routes to travel via water to Spain and later other western countries in search of a better life.