25 dead, dozens missing after migrant boat sinks off Mauritania

At least 25 migrants have died and dozens are missing after their boat capsized off Mauritania, the country's news agency AMI said Wednesday, in the latest in a string of migrant tragedies off the coast of West Africa.

The Mauritanian coastguard "saved the lives of 103 illegal immigrants and recovered 25 bodies, following the sinking of their boat off the coast of the capital Nouakchott", AMI reported, citing a coastguard commander.

Earlier, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at least 15 people had died in the wreck.

"Approximately 300 people boarded a pirogue in The Gambia and spent seven days at sea before the boat capsized near Nouakchott on July 22, 2024," the IOM said.

"Among the survivors, 10 people were urgently referred to hospitals for medical care, and four unaccompanied and separated children were identified," the IOM said.

The source from the Mauritanian coastguard said the vessel was carrying 140 to 180 people, mostly Senegalese and Gambian.

The boat had broken up in the middle of the sea and the captain abandoned the vessel, the source said.

Since June, more than 76 boats with more than 6,000 surviving migrants have disembarked in Mauritania, with at least 190 dead and missing migrants, the IOM statement said.

Every year, thousands of Africans fleeing poverty and unemployment in search of a better future embark on the perilous route to Europe.

But the crossing is fraught with tragedy.

In early July, nearly 90 migrants bound for Europe perished when their boat capsized off the coast of Mauritania.

Twenty-six migrants who set sail from Guinea died when their boat sank off Senegal at the beginning of May.

The Atlantic route to Spain's Canary Islands is particularly dangerous because of strong currents, with migrants travelling in overloaded, often unseaworthy, boats without enough drinking water.

But it has grown in popularity due to increased vigilance by authorities in the Mediterranean.

From January 1 to July 15 alone, more than 19,700 migrants arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands using this route, the IOM said.

That is a 160 percent increase from the same period in 2023, when 7,590 migrants were recorded.

Off the coast of North Africa, the Canary Islands lie 100 kilometres (62 miles) away at their closest point.

More than 5,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first five months of this year, or the equivalent of 33 deaths per day, according to Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish charity.

That is the highest daily number of deaths since it began collating figures in 2007, and the vast majority were on the Atlantic route.