315 migrants rescued off Mauritania, coastguard says

Mauritania's coastguard said Friday it rescued 315 migrants, including 40 children, from an overloaded boat off the country's Atlantic coast.

The coastguard said the migrants were picked up during the night of Wednesday to Thursday off the fishing port of Nouadhibou, Mauritania's economic capital. It said they were in a difficult humanitarian situation.

The wooden pirogue had set off from The Gambia and was carrying 191 people from Senegal, 123 from The Gambia and one from Mali, the coastguard said.

A coastguard official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the vessel had been drifting when it was rescued.

The rescue came days after Mauritanian coastguards rescued 42 migrants, including women and children, from another drifting boat after it had engine trouble. Thousands of people have attempted the Atlantic route to Europe via Spain's Canary Islands, often in overloaded or dilapidated boats.