A boat transporting refugees and immigrants on Thursday, December 5, 2019 capsized off the coast of Mauritania, killing dozens, the Guardian Newspaper has reported.
The International Organization for Migration put the number of those who died in the sinking incident at 58.
A number of those in the ill-fated boat managed to swim to safety and are currently receiving medical treatment.
The boat was on its way towards the Canary Islands after leaving the Gambia about seven days ago, and had at least 150 people on board.
Mauritania chief of mission for the UN migration agency Laura Lungarotti confirmed the incident, adding that the boat had been stranded for days after running out of fuel.
“Many drowned. The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou,” she said as quoted by the Guardian.
“The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies, " she added.
Around 83 managed to swim ashore, Aljazeera reported.
The government of Gambia, at the time of writing this article, had not issued a statement on the incident.
Citizens of Gambia attempts to embark on extremely dangerous journeys towards Europe have been documented in the media.
The country's former president Yahya Jameh maintained a brutal grip on power for over 20 years.
The boat transporting the immigrants was not seaworthy.