Following this week’s capsize of a migrant boat off the coast of Mauritania, the leader of a fishing association and the state press agency of the West African nation reported the recovery of at least 89 bodies.
One of the deadliest migratory routes in the world runs across the Atlantic, from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, where most African migrants attempt to reach Spain. It is busiest in the summer.
According to Mauritania’s official news agency, the coast guard found the bodies of 89 migrants who were on a boat with 170 passengers, all of them were headed for Europe on Thursday.
Nine individuals, one of them a five-year-old kid, were reportedly saved.
We were unable to get in touch with Mauritanian authorities for comment.
In the town of Ndiago in the southwest, residents have been burying remains that have been recovered from the coast since Monday, according to Yali Fall, head of the fishing organization. As of Friday, there had been 105 confirmed deaths.
“For three days, we buried the dead whose bodies were found,” he continued.
In June, the migration rights organization Walking Borders reported that in the first five months of 2024, an unprecedented roughly 5,000 migrants perished at sea while attempting to reach the Canary Islands.
Data from the Spanish interior ministry showed that during that time, arrivals to the archipelago increased fivefold to over 16,500 compared to the previous year.
