Several dead, over 150 missing after boat capsizes off Mauritania: IOM

At least 15 people have been killed and more than 150 missing after a boat carrying 300 passengers capsized near Mauritania's capital Nouakchott, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

The IOM said on Wednesday the Mauritanian coastguard rescued 120 people and that 10 of them were taken to hospitals while efforts to locate the missing continued.

It said the passengers were travelling from Gambia on Monday and that they had spent seven days at sea before the shipwreck.

Ibba Sarr, a fishmonger at a waterside fishmarket in Nouakchott, said that strong winds in the past had two days moved the bodies closer to the shore and he saw around 30 bodies being collected from the beach.

"Surely other lifeless bodies will be discovered in the next two days," Sarr told Reuters by phone.

The stricken pirogue was located 400 metres north of the market, he said.

Atlantic migration route

The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used by African asylum seekers trying to reach Spain, is one of the world's deadliest.

Summer is its busiest period.

More than 19,700 migrants reached the Canary Islands using the Atlantic route between January 1 and July 15, 2024 representing a 160 percent increase compared to the same period last year, the IOM said.

An unprecedented nearly 5,000 migrants died at sea in the first five months of 2024 trying to reach the Spanish archipelago, migration rights group Walking Borders said in June.