Migrant Ship Overturned In Mauritania, 89 Bodies Found

UNSPLASH/Jametlene Reskp ILLUSTRATION

A total of 89 bodies were found off the coast of Mauritania after the migrant ship capsized this week.

The Atlantic migration route from West Africa's coast to the Canary Islands, which African migrants usually use to reach Spain, is one of the deadliest routes in the world. Summer is the busiest period.

Mauritania news agency said the coast guard had found 89 migrant bodies bound for Europe by ship carrying 170 people.

As reported by Reuters on Saturday, July 6, nine people, including a five-year-old girl, were rescued.

Yali Fall, president of a fishing association in the southwestern city of Ndiago, said the death toll reached 105. Locals have buried bodies evacuated from the coast since Monday this week.

"For three days we buried the bodies found," he said.

Nearly 5,000 migrants have died at sea in the first five months of unprecedented 2024 while trying to reach the Canary Islands, the Walking Borders migration rights group said in June.

Data from the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs shows tourist arrivals to the islands during that period jumped fivefold to more than 16,500 people compared to last year.