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

By RENATA BRITO
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Brazilian police investigating the discovery of a boat with several dead bodies say they were likely African migrants from Mali and Mauritania. Fishermen off Brazil’s northern coastal state of Pará had found the boat adrift on Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil’s Federal Police said in a statement late on Monday that it had recovered nine bodies. The large white and blue canoe-shaped boat has the same characteristics as Mauritanian fishing boats known as pirogues, frequently used by West African migrants to reach Spain’s Canary Islands. Brazil was likely not the migrants’ destination.