15 killed in shipwreck off Mauritania, over 150 missing

In a statement released on Wednesday, the IOM reported that Mauritanian coastguards had rescued 120 individuals, 10 of whom were urgently taken to hospitals, while search efforts for the missing continued.

The passengers, who were travelling from Gambia, had spent seven days at sea before the shipwreck occurred.

Ibba Sarr, a fishmonger at a waterside market in Nouakchott, noted that strong winds over the past two days had moved the bodies closer to shore, and he observed around 30 bodies being collected from the beach. “Surely other lifeless bodies will be discovered in the next two days,” Sarr told news agency Reuters by phone. He added that the stricken pirogue was located 400 metres north of the market.

Mauritanian authorities have not yet issued any statement on the incident.

The IOM reported that more than 19,700 migrants reached the Canary Islands via the Atlantic route between January 1 and July 15, 2024, marking a 160% increase compared to the same period last year. Migration rights group Walking Borders revealed in June that nearly 5,000 migrants had died at sea in the first five months of 2024 while attempting to reach the Spanish archipelago.