At least 15 people were killed after a boat capsized near Mauritania’s capital, the International Organisation for Migration said.

The UN’s migration body said the boat, which carried 300 passengers from Gambia, capsized near Nouakchott on Monday.

The IOM said more than 150 people are missing, and that Mauritanian coastguards rescued 120 people.

Ten of those rescued were taken to hospital. The group also said the passengers had spent seven days at sea before the incident.

Ibba Sarr, a fishmonger at a waterside market in Nouakchott, told Reuters strong winds in the past two days had moved the bodies closer to the shore.

He added he saw around 30 bodies being collected from the beach, and that “surely other lifeless bodies will be discovered in the next two days”.

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It comes after at least 89 people died when a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Mauritania earlier this month.

The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the world’s deadliest, and summer is its busiest period.

In the first five months of 2024, almost 5,000 people died at sea as they tried to reach the Canary Islands, migrants rights group Walking Borders said last month.

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