At least 57 migrants have died while travelling along the coast of Mauritania on Wednesday as their boat capsized.

According to the UN migration agency, the incident is one of the deadliest this year.

The vessel with 150 passengers on board had left Gambia last Wednesday and reportedly was in the Atlantic Ocean on the way to Europe, one of the most common schemes to illegally pass through the international borders.

“The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies currently present in Nouadhibou,” Laura Lungarotti, the chief of mission in Mauritania with the migration agency, advised.

The exact cause of the crash is yet to be determined.

Credit : SADC News