At least seventy people died when a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Mauritania last Wednesday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Gambia, the country where the boat left, announced this on Friday evening on X. The number of deaths will rise: there were about 150 people on the boat, of whom only sixteen were saved.
Gambians and Senegalezen were mainly on board, the ministry writes. The accident happened around 2 o’clock in the morning, near the fishing village of Lemhaisait, towards the north of Mauritania.
The boat was most likely on its way to the Spanish Canary Islands, which are west of Morocco. Although the migration route was used less often in 2020, 2021 and 2022, more migrants arrive on the islands in the last two years. The European Border Security Service Frontex found That the number of illegal border crossing in the EU has decreased by almost 40 percent in 2024, but in the Canary Islands, 18 percent more people arrived.
According to NGO Caminando Fronteras, the Western African migration route is the most dangerous: In 2024, almost 10,000 migrants were killed during the crossing.