By Lamin Njie
At least 58 people have died after a migrant boat bound for Spain carrying 150 passengers ran out of fuel and capsized as it approached the coast of Mauritania, a top UN official confirmed to The Fatu Network today.
Reports of a migrant boat capsizing as it headed for Europe abounded on various international news agencies today, with the outlets confirming the incident from UN agencies.
A top IOM official today confirmed to The Fatu Network that the accident involved a boat that left The Gambia last week Wednesday.
“These are 150 migrants. So at least 58 are dead we can confirm at the moment.
“The survivors have told Mauritanian authorities and IOM that the ship left The Gambia last Wednesday on November 27 and it’s been widely reported that the passengers are mostly Gambians but at the moment at IOM we cannot confirm the nationalities of the passengers on the ship.,” the official said.
The Fatu Network also understands the Gambian ambassador to Mauritania Mawdo Juwara will today fly to the site of the shipwreck in a bid to confirm the nationalities and identities of the migrants.
The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa but thousands of Gambian youths leave the country each year, making it one of the most migrant producing countries in Africa. Most Gambian youths believe they cannot enjoy better lives in the country and as a result, they end up embarking on dangerous land and sea journeys to European countries like Spain, Italy and Malta.
The ‘back way’ journey to Spain was discovered in the mid-2000s when thousands of Gambian youths spend weeks in the sea just to reach Europe, a journey that is as deadly as the Libya one.
