NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — At least 58 migrants have drowned after a boat capsized off the West African nation of Mauritania and scores tried to swim through rough waters to safety, officials said.

It was one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe.

The boat, which left Gambia on Nov. 27, was headed toward the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa, when it tried to approach Mauritania to get fuel and food, Laura Lungarotti, chief of the Mauritania mission with the United Nations migration agency, said on Wednesday.

“Many drowned,” she added. “The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou.”

At least 83 people swam to shore and were receiving treatment, the agency said. Interior Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug said 10 people were taken to a hospital for “urgent” treatment. The survivors were receiving care in accordance with “human solidarity, fraternity and African hospitality,” the minister’s statement said.