Thirty people were missing Thursday after a boat carrying them from the Comoros broke up in rough seas on its way towards the French Indian Ocean island Mayotte, French officials said.
Eleven people were rescued from the large dug-out canoe that went down on Monday while it was carrying Comorans who were hoping to illegally enter the French island, officials said.
The survivors -- who include a pregnant woman, two teenagers and a people-smuggler -- had clung to pieces of the canoe after the vessel spit in two in heavy seas, said the officials in the Mayotte capital Mamoudzou.
The Comoros archipelago has seen frequent coups since independence from France and is far poorer than Mayotte, whose relative wealth makes it a magnet for illegal migrants who make a perilous boat journey there.
