At least 143 migrants are feared dead after a boat carrying about 180 people capsized off the coast of Mauritania, the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday.
The UN migration agency described the incident as the deadliest recorded shipwreck on the Atlantic migration route from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands.
According to the IOM, the vessel departed from Gambia and spent 25 days at sea before capsizing near the Mauritanian port city of Nouadhibou.
Mauritania’s Coast Guard rescued 38 survivors last Saturday and recovered one body. Survivors said at least 143 other passengers remained missing and were presumed dead.
Those rescued included men, women and children from several West African countries. Two children reportedly lost their parents and a younger sibling during the journey.
“Every life lost on this route is one life too many,” said Sylvia Ekra, the IOM’s regional director for West and Central Africa.
“My thoughts are with the families who are mourning loved ones, and with the survivors who have endured an unimaginable ordeal,” she added.
The latest disaster brings the number of reported deaths on the West African Atlantic route to the Canary Islands this year to 168, according to the IOM.
That figure does not include two suspected shipwrecks that remain under investigation and may have resulted in hundreds of additional deaths.
Ekra warned that a fall in the number of migrants reaching the Canary Islands should not be interpreted as evidence that the route has become safer.
The IOM called for stronger cooperation between countries in the region and greater access to safe and legal migration routes.