Mauritania coastguard rescues over 300 migrants from drifting boat

Mauritania's coastguard said on Friday it had rescued more than 300 migrants, including 40 children, from an overloaded boat drifting off the west African country's Atlantic coast.

In recent months, hundreds of migrants, mostly from Senegal, The Gambia and Mali, have been rescued in Mauritanian waters while attempting the journey to Europe but hundreds have died or gone missing after their boats sank.

The migrants were "in a difficult humanitarian situation" when they were picked up during the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the coastguard said in a statement.

Their wooden pirogue boat had set off from The Gambia and was carrying 315 people, 191 from Senegal, 123 from The Gambia and one from Mali, it added.

"Among these people are men, women and minors, including infants, who find themselves in a difficult humanitarian situation," the coastguard said.

They were rescued off the fishing port of Nouadhibou, the country's economic capital.

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

It comes days after Mauritanian coastguards rescued 42 migrants, including women and children, from a drifting boat after it experienced engine trouble.

Thousands of people have for years attempted the perilous Atlantic route on overloaded and often dilapidated boats to reach Europe via Spain's Canary Islands.