Nouakchott, Aug 6, 2020 – About 40 people are feared dead after a migrant vessel sank off the coast of Mauritania, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday. “New shipwreck off the coast of Nouadhibou #Mauritania of approximately 40 persons on board, there is one survivor (from Guinea)” Cochetel said on Twitter. The official interviewed the Guinean survivor from a hospital bed in Mauritania, however, who said that he and his friends had attempted to travel from Morocco to Spain’s Canary Islands. The incident appears similar an event in December, when 62 migrants trying to make their way to the Canary Islands drowned off the coast of Mauritania. Attempts to reach the Canary Islands from West African countries have increased in recent years as authorities have clamped down on crossings to Europe from Libya.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 06, 2020 15:00 UTC