At least 89 people died and another 70 are missing after the Shipwreck of a canoe in the waters of the Atlantic off the coast of Mauritania, according to the Mauritanian Information Agency (AMI).

Up to 89 Bodies have been recovered on the coast of the town of N’diagoa Mauritanian town close to neighbouring Senegal. Three more bodies were found at sea near Nouakchott (200 kilometres north) and it is believed that they may be people missing from this boat, EFE agency reported, citing a security source in the Rosso region in the south of the country.

“The Mauritanian coastguard has recovered the bodies of 89 people aboard a large traditional fishing boat which capsized on Monday 1 July off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean,” the agency said. Nine people, including a five-year-old girl, were rescued by the Mauritanian coast guard, AMI said. According to the survivors, the boat, which left the Senegal-Gambia border for Europe six days ago, was carrying 170 migrants on board.

The occupants of the wrecked canoe are mostly Senegalese and Gambians which left the coasts of Senegal and were probably heading towards the Spanish Canary Islands. Until June, More than 19,000 people arrived in the Canary Islands illegallythree times as many as in 2023 over the same period, and the Canarian government fears that 2024 will end well above last year’s record of 40,000. The government of the Spanish islands estimates that there are some 300,000 sub-Saharans waiting in Mauritania to try to reach the Canary Islands.

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