9 corpses found adrift in boat off Brazil were likely migrants from Mauritania and Mali, police say

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Brazilian police investigating the grim discovery of a boat full of corpses say the dead were likely African migrants from Mali and Mauritania.

Fishermen off Brazil’s northern coastal state of Pará found the boat adrift Saturday in the Atlantic ocean. Brazil’s Federal police said in a statement late Monday it had recovered nine dead in total.

“Documents and objects found near the bodies indicate that the victims were migrants from the African continent, from the region of Mauritania and Mali,” the statement read. Police added that other nationalities could be among the deceased.

The roughly 12-meter (39-foot) -long white and blue canoe-shaped boat found in Brazil shares the same characteristics of Mauritanian fishing pirogues frequently used by West African migrants and refugees fleeing to Spain’s Canary Islands, suggesting Brazil was probably not their destination.