More than 40 migrants drown off West Africa

NOUAKCHOTT, March 6 (Reuters) More than 40 African migrants on their way to Spain's Canary Islands drowned at the weekend when their boats sank off the West African coast, Mauritania's Red Crescent organisation said today.

The two separate incidents took place during the night of Saturday to Sunday in waters north of the Mauritanian coastal city of Nouadhibou, off the coasts of Western Sahara and Morocco, a Red Crescent spokesman told Reuters.

REUTERS CH KP2242