A migrant boat sank off Mauritania’s coast earlier this week, leaving at least 49 people dead and around 100 missing, news agency AFP reported.“One of our patrols was able to rescue 17 (people). So far, 49 bodies have been recovered and buried, and the search is continuing,” a senior coastguard official was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP. Survivors reported that the vessel had about 160 people on board, including nationals from Senegal and Gambia. The local gendarmerie confirmed the death toll.The accident took place late Tuesday night, when migrants on board spotted the lights of a town about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Nouakchott and shifted to one side of the vessel, causing it to overturn, a coastguard official told AFP.
