Spiritual beliefs inform much of the rural communities in Senegal, where many people often turn to certain faith leaders as guides during their trials and tribulations.

Locally, these elders are known as marabouts: They're scholars of Islam who operate somewhere between religion and superstition. Marabouts enjoy great respect in Senegal, and serve as routine counsellors in all kinds of matters -- whether it's finance, health, or family.

In recent years, they have also increasingly been playing a role in narratives related to migration: At first, those who decide to leave Senegal to look for a better life elsewhere would receive protective charms from these marabouts.

More recently, however, some marabouts have been accused of profiting personally from the pain and anguish of family members of migrants who have disappeared. According to a report by Eduardo S. Molano of EFE Verifica, the fact-checking unit of Spain's EFE news agency, some have claimed to possess information about missing migrants in exchange for money. The report is part of the multimedia series "Noticias falsas, víctimas reales" ("Fake News, Real Victims"), which highlights the experiences of people around the world affected by disinformation.

Read Also'Those who remain': Families of migrants mourn their disappearance in Senegal

'I know she's alive'

Bineta Dieng is a day laborer from the seaside village of Bargny outside the capital Dakar, who places her faith entirely in the hands of marabouts.

The 58-year-old woman has not heard a word from her daughter Maimouna for almost three years.

"On October 30, 2023, my daughter Maimouna set sail on a boat. She has been missing ever since," she told the Spanish EFE news agency. Nothing is known of the whereabouts of the boat she embarked on since the day of its departure.

For international organizations like the IOM, Maimouna's fate is one among thousands of people who are believed to have drowned on their way to Europe, but Bineta Dieng remains convinced that her daughter is alive -- because a marabout told her so.

In fact, the marabout in question specifically told her not only that Maimouna was alive but that she was being held in detention in Morocco; however, this particular fortune-teller meanwhile is one of many that Dieng and her family have consulted in recent months:

"I haven't lost hope. The bond between a mother and her children is something special. I know she's alive," she insists.

"All the marabouts we've contacted tell us that our children are alive. That they're in a dark place (...) in Morocco," Dieng highlights from her experience.

Marabouts: the only link to missing relatives

Bineta Dieng continues to reach out to marabouts in hopes of receiving information about her daughter's whereabouts. She explains that she gets their contact details through friends, or that she finds them by chance on social media.

These spiritual consultants, however, meanwhile seem to be cashing in handsome amounts, nearly bankrupting desperate people like Dieng, who have nowhere else to turn to:

"A marabout asked a group of women and me for 250,000 francs (375 euros) to give us more information about the exact whereabouts of our children," says Dieng, who cannot even entertain the idea that she might be the victim of an elaborate scam.

"We didn't have that money and couldn't give it to him. But if we had had it, we would have given it to him without hesitation."

For the time being, however, Dieng is unable to reach out to her spiritual guides -- because her phone is broken. This is making her notably uneasy:

"I need to get my phone fixed. Without it, I can't keep looking for my daughter," she tells EFE, with the sense of anxiety almost palpable in her voice.

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Over 100 missing from same village

Ndeye Yacine is another local woman who has consulted local marabouts for help in the past.

Two of her nephews boarded the same boat as Dieng's daughter Maimouna that fateful night, and Yacine has been trying to make sense of their disappearance ever since.

"[The marabouts] ask for a lot of money. When I went with the mothers, they told me they had to give 50,000 or 55,000 francs (75 to 80 euros) to perform rituals that would bring the children back," Yacine explains.

"I was hoping that giving that money would at least ease the pain a little. But so far, nothing," she laments, unsure whether she wants to believe claims like the one that the group of migrants could be held in detention in Morocco.

In total, 15 migrants from the Barygny community are believed to have boarded the same boat that night, alongside more than 150 other people from other parts of the country. 

However, for people in Barygny, the change that migration has brought to their community is more tangible than elsewhere: According to local authorities in Bargny, over 5 percent of the local population left the community to embark on dangerous migratory journeys in 2023 and 2024 alone. Many continue to leave the village, leaving behind their families.

From all the departures of recent years, more than 100 people currently remain missing, with their loved ones frantically looking for answers.

Many marabouts appear to be only too happy to provide them with some comfort -- in exchange for cash.

Read AlsoFamilies of lost migrants: Waiting for answers that may never come

Comfort over truth

People like Yacine and Dieng do not seem to understand that they are being deceived, the report suggests. Perhaps, they don't even want to know, with the services of various marabouts remaining as the only link to their lost relatives. 

For some, the comfort they receive may easily trump the daunting challenge of facing the truth; for others, doing their own research is simply not a realistic expectation.

For many people in these rural communities, the concept of media literacy is an alien concept, as they usually have little education to begin with. 

For the marabouts, manipulating such people into following them and giving up their hard-earned money therefore is quite easy in this environment, where the threshold for profiting from disinformation is incredibly low: 

Often, the marabouts are among the few literate people in any given community, navigating several cultures and their languages as leaders of their communities. They also have the skills -- and access -- to look up real news stories about migrants online, which they study and then distort to suit their own needs.

All they need is just enough information to come across as legitimate. The rest is smoke and mirrors.

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Elaborate stories to hide scams

"[Marabouts] post messages claiming they can heal, perform invocations or consultations, and leave their phone number for contact on social media," explains Bakou Mbaye, the leader of the local Lebou community -- and ethnic group to which most residents of this area of the Senegalese coast belong.

Mbaye tells EFE that most marabouts operate as "charlatans" who abuse the vulnerability of parents who "don't know what to do." 

"So they turn to the marabout for help, to find out if your child is alive, if they've made it to Spain or Europe," Mbaye explains.

Mbaye has heard the claim that the lost migrants are being held somewhere in Morocco from many people in his community. The network of marabouts seems to agree on this narrative in their fortune-telling services.

EFE said it contacted more than thirty families, whose loved ones had left Bargny as migrants on different boats between 2023 and 2025, and who since have disappeared; all those families responded that marabouts has reassured them that their missing relatives were somewhere in the North African country.

EFE's research also reveals that there are in fact close to 300 Senegalese detainees in Morocco; however, most of them are people who attempted to cross from Morocco into Europe -- not those who set out from the coast of Senegal on boats, as in the case of all the missing people from Bargny.

This truth might be rather uncomfortable or inconvenient for families and marabouts alike, as it leaves little doubt in the prospect that these migrants will remain missing for good, and that the only place to find them is likely the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Yet, dozens of families in Bargny continue to wait in anguish to hear from their children, seeking the help of opportunists who have no qualms with defrauding them and their despair.

Bineta Dieng clutches her broken phone, sure of her next step: "As soon as I get it repaired, I'll call the marabouts again," she tells EFE.

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This article is based on EFE's feature "'Sé dónde está tu hijo': así engañan los falsos marabús a familias de migrantes en Senegal"