At least 70 killed in capsize of illegal migrant boat off West Africa, Gambia says

At least 70 people were killed when a boat carrying illegals capsized off the coast of West Africa, Gambia's foreign affairs ministry said late on Friday, in one of the deadliest accidents in recent years along a popular illegal migration route to Europe.

Another 30 people are feared dead after the vessel, believed to have departed from Gambia and carrying mostly Gambian and Senegalese nationals, sank off the coast of Mauritania early on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement.

It was carrying an estimated 150 passengers, 16 of whom had been rescued. Mauritanian authorities recovered 70 bodies on Wednesday and Thursday, and witness accounts suggest over 100 may have died, the statement said.

The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used by African migrants trying to reach Spain, is one of the world's deadliest.

More than 46,000 irregular migrants reached the Canary Islands last year, a record, according to the European Union. More than 10,000 died attempting the journey, a 58 per cent increase over 2023, according to the rights group Caminando Fronteras.

Gambia's foreign affairs ministry implored its nationals to, "refrain from embarking on such perilous journeys, which continue to claim the lives of many".

(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by William Mallard)