More Than 140 Dead or Missing After Migrant Boat Stranded Off Mauritania

Vessel carrying refugees and migrants from Africa ran out of fuel, leading to one of the deadliest incidents on the Atlantic migration route

A boat carrying migrants and refugees from Africa ran out of fuel off the coast of Mauritania, leaving 143 people dead or missing and only 38 survivors rescued, Al Jazeera reported.

The tragedy adds to a grim toll along the Atlantic migration route, one of several perilous sea passages migrants and asylum seekers use in attempts to reach Europe, often in overcrowded and poorly equipped vessels.

Details of the exact circumstances that stranded the boat, along with the nationalities of those aboard, were not immediately available in initial reporting. The scale of the loss ranks the incident among the deadliest on record for migrant crossings in the region this year.

Mauritania has increasingly become a departure point and transit hub for migrants attempting the dangerous Atlantic route toward Spain's Canary Islands, a journey that has claimed thousands of lives in recent years as land routes through North Africa have tightened.

— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera.