Two migrants die, 88 saved off Cape Verde

Rescue teams in Cape Verde have saved 88 migrants adrift in a canoe, but two others aboard the vessel have died, the national press agency Inforpress reported.

The motorised canoe, known as a pirogue, was spotted by a lighthouse keeper on Saturday on the coast of the northern island of Boa Vista, it said.

The migrants come from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, Inforpress said on Sunday, quoting local police.

Six have been hospitalised with dehydration, it said.

Cape Verde is a former Portuguese archipelago located around 600 kilometres (350 miles) off the coast of West Africa.

It has previously picked up migrants in distress trying to make the crossing to the Spanish islands of Canaries — a gateway to the European Union — but high numbers are rare.

According to the newspaper Expresso das Ilhas, the canoe had left The Gambia 25 days before but ran out of fuel.