More than 35 people travelling from Nigeria to Gabon were feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Cameroon, a survivor and the Cameroonian navy said.
Deaths at sea are common off West Africa, from where thousands of people each year attempt to reach Europe, a dangerous journey made more hazardous by the frequent use of small, overcrowded and unseaworthy craft.
The sinking on Sunday happened when a storm overturned the vessel which was carrying 43 passengers and crew, six of whom had since been rescued.
"The crew completely lost control, water entered the boat and it turned over," Emmanuel Akimba, one of two Nigerians known to have survived, told Cameroonian state radio.
"As it sank, we just hung onto anything that was floating that we could until fishermen came to our rescue before handing us over to the Cameroon navy," he said.
The navy brought the survivors, the other four of whom were from Burkina Faso, to a hospital in the southwestern town of Limbe, and it was searching for more survivors.
Authorities in Limbe said they believed all the people in the boat, mostly Burkinabe and Nigerian, had been hired to work on plantations in Gabon.
Reuters