Migrant boat capsizes off Mauritania, killing 69

A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Mauritania earlier this week, killing 69 people, officials tell AFP.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday night when the migrants saw the lights of a town off the coast of Mauritania, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Nouakchott and “moved to one side, causing it to capsize”, a senior coastguard official tells AFP.

One of the coast guard’s patrols had been able to rescue 17 people, the official says.

An earlier toll had put the number of dead at 49, but a senior coast guard official later revised it higher to 69.

According to a statement from the migrants, the boat had left The Gambia a week earlier with about 160 people on board, including Senegalese and Gambian nationals, the official adds.

Drownings are frequent during the perilous crossing between Africa and Europe, with strong ocean currents and ramshackle vessels making the long crossing dangerous.

At least 10,457 migrants died, for example, while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.

Officials do not say where the migrants in Tuesday’s accident were headed.