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Mauritania’s coastguard has rescued 315 migrants, including 40 children, from an overloaded boat drifting off the country’s Atlantic coast, authorities said Friday.
The wooden pirogue had departed from The Gambia and was carrying 191 Senegalese, 123 Gambian and one Malian national, according to the coastguard.
The migrants, including men, women, minors and infants, were found in a “difficult humanitarian situation” during a rescue operation conducted overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
The boat was intercepted off Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s economic capital and a major fishing port. A coastguard official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the vessel had been drifting when it was rescued.
The rescue came days after Mauritanian coastguards saved 42 migrants, including women and children, from another drifting boat after it developed engine problems.
The Atlantic migration route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has become one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes. Thousands of migrants attempt the journey each year aboard overloaded and often poorly maintained boats.
Many migrants depart from Senegal, The Gambia and Mali in the hope of reaching Europe, but hundreds have died or gone missing in recent months after boats sank or encountered other difficulties at sea.
Mauritanian authorities have rescued hundreds of migrants from its waters as efforts to reach the Canary Islands continue.
