The authorities of Mauritania have reported that they have managed to rescue more than 200 migrants and that around 120 people remain missing after two incidents recorded with vessels off their coasts. The events, linked to the migratory route to the Atlantic, have so far left at least one deceased, although it is feared that the number of fatalities may increase in the coming hours.
The Mauritanian Ministry of Fisheries detailed on social media that the first search and rescue operation, carried out over two days of the weekend, was activated after receiving a distress call from a boat with "about 160 people on board" that had set sail from the capital of Gambia, Banjul, heading to the Canary Islands.
According to the Ministry, the vessel "suffered a problem and ran out of fuel, drifting in international waters before entering Mauritanian territorial waters." The teams deployed in the area managed to rescue 37 people —22 Senegalese, seven Gambians, and eight Guineans— and recover a body.
The department specified that the boat "spent about 25 days at sea" and that, according to the survivors' account, they were "adrift for about ten days," a situation that caused "water and food to run out, forcing them to drink seawater." "They endured extremely harsh conditions," lamented the Ministry, which described a scenario of great precariousness on board.
"The search for the missing passengers continues," reiterated the department, which confirmed that the rescued were disembarked at the port of Nouadhibou. From there, seven of them had to be transferred "urgently" to a hospital to "receive the necessary medical attention," without further information being provided about their progress.
In a second intervention, carried out on Saturday, the Mauritanian authorities rescued 179 people —168 Senegalese, five Ghanaians, four Gambians, and two Malians—. Some of these migrants also needed to be referred to a hospital for medical assistance, with no detailed information about the severity of their condition.
Mauritania has consolidated in recent years as one of the main departure points of the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands. In recent weeks, the authorities of the country have reported the interception of several vessels with hundreds of people on board, in a context of continued increase in departures.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicates on its website that, since 2014, around 6,600 people have died or gone missing on this Atlantic route, a figure only surpassed by that recorded in the Sahara Desert, where more than 7,100 deceased and missing have been documented.