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 NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - African migrants desperate to escape the world's poorest continent are streaming through Mauritania to embark on a perilous ocean voyage to Europe that has already killed hundreds.
The exodus from the desert country on the coast of northwest Africa prompted a call for help Thursday from Mauritania's prime minister, and European leaders concerned about absorbing the immigrants already on their shores were eager to cooperate.
The situation garnered new international attention this week after Spain said Wednesday that the bodies of 24 people — all apparently from sub-Saharan Africa — had been discovered in waters off the coast of Mauritania. Spain also intercepted some 400 Africans trying to reach its Canary Islands — a single-day record — in nine overcrowded boats that had set out from Mauritania.
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