One migrant from the African country of Cameroon was found dead Friday and two others are missing after a boat capsized just off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast.

Emergency crews rescued seven men and one woman who had been in the same boat. They were taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

The search continued for two others who have not yet been found. The Mexican Navy was helping in the efforts. The prosecutors’ office in the southern state of Chiapas said the accident occurred early Friday near the Guatemalan border, in an area used by migrant traffickers in the past. The boat may have foundered on a shoal at the mouth of an inlet to a coastal lagoon.

It identified the dead man as 39-year-old Emmanuel Cheo Ngu. Many migrants flee Cameroon to escape the conflict between the English-speaking population and the Francophone majority-government.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute distributed photos showing at least two of the migrants, a man and a woman, being carried on stretchers. The capsize apparently occurred at a spot at least 230 kilometres (143 miles) by sea from the nearest point on the Guatemalan coast. That would be a long trip for what the immigration institute described as a fishing boat.

Source: Associated Press