The number of fatalities in an accident with a migrant boat off the coast of Mauritania is rising. At least 69 people drowned when the boat with around 160 migrants capsized earlier in the week, according to the country's coast guard, as reported by The Guardian.
The coast guard was able to rescue 17 people from the water.
The accident occurred late on Tuesday night, about eight miles north of the capital Nouakchott, when the migrants saw the light from a coastal town and then "moved to one side, which caused the boat to capsize".
The coast guard states that according to the migrants themselves, the boat had left Gambia a week earlier with about 160 people on board from Gambia and Senegal.
The authorities have not stated where the boat was headed.
