At Least 25 Dead In Pirogue Wreck In Mauritania

Mauritanian coast guard "rescued 103 illegal immigrants and recovered 25 bodies, following the sinking of their boat off the coast of the capital Nouakchott", according to the Official Information Agency of Mauritania (AMI).

Among those identified by the Mauritanian coast guard who died and were rescued were 65 Senegalese, including six women and three children, 52 Gambians, including three women and three children, and an Ivorian.

Previously, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had reported at least 15 deaths in this sinking of a pirogue, a vessel made from a single tree trunk.

According to the IOM, around 300 people embarked in Gambia and spent seven days at sea before the boat capsized near Nouakchott on July 22.

The head of the Mauritanian coast guard had already reported that a canoe, carrying between 140 and 180 people, mostly Senegalese and Gambians, broke apart in the open sea and the boat's captain fled, he highlighted.

This is the latest tragedy on the Atlantic migratory route, whose main destination is the Canaries, the Spanish archipelago and gateway to Europe.

In early July, nearly 90 migrants died when their boat capsized off the coast of southwestern Mauritania on its way to Europe, and dozens more were never found.

A large number of Africans fleeing poverty, unemployment or the lack of future prospects follow this dangerous path, embarking clandestinely, in exchange for money, in precarious pirogues or boats that can carry dozens of passengers.

It takes days of navigation to travel several hundred kilometers to the Canaries in conditions described as terrible by the survivors, at the mercy of hunger and thirst, time and damage.

More than 19,700 migrants arrived irregularly in the Canaries via this route between January 1 and July 15, 2024, an increase of 160% compared to 2023, when 7,590 migrants were registered, according to the IOM.

Other routes from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe go overland and across the desert toward the Mediterranean coasts.

More than 5,000 migrants died during the first five months of 2024 when trying to reach the Spanish coast, most of them via the Canary route, according to the Spanish NGO (non-governmental organization) Caminando Fronteras.

The numbers generally fall far short of reflecting the scale of these events. The number of departing passengers, and therefore those missing, is difficult to establish.