The number of bodies recovered by Mauritanian authorities has risen to seventy, following the shipwreck that occurred on Thursday off its coast of a boat with more than a hundred migrants heading to the Canary Islands, the Mauritanian Coast Guard told EFE this Friday.
Search and rescue operations remain active, while rescue teams, who recovered 20 bodies and rescued 17 survivors on Thursday, are preparing to dive and inspect the sunken ship, which was carrying migrants mostly from Gambia and Senegal.
The sources lamented that the hope of finding new survivors is minimal.
The incident occurred in the M’haijratt area, about 60 kilometers north of Nouakchott, and according to the rescued, the boat had set sail from Gambia six days earlier bound for the Canary Islands.
The migratory route from the African coast to the Canary Islands, known as the 'Atlantic route', is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, with thousands of deaths each year.
In 2024, 46,843 migrants arrived in Spain via this route, according to official data, while 9,757 lost their lives in the attempt, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
