More than 1,000 die in four months trying to reach Canaries

More than 1,000 Africans have died over the past four months while trying to sail in small boats from Mauritania to Spain’s Canary Islands, a Mauritanian aid official said today.

Ahmed Ould Haya, head of Mauritania’s branch of the International Committee of the Red Crescent, spoke a day after reporting the death of at least 45 would-be immigrants in two accidents on Saturday and yesterday morning.