Skip to main content

67 DROWNED AFTER BOAT CAP.................


Photos: 67 migrants drowned after boats capsized off Libya, 3,000 rescued, including Nigerians

67 migrants are feared dead off Libya and the coastal town of Zuwara after more than 3,000 people attempted the crossing between Tuesday and Wednesday. The crew of the Swedish rescue vessel Poseidon discovered around 52 bodies in the hold of a wooden boat from which around 400 people were rescued some 30 miles north of Libya.


They were found close to the engine and are believed to have died from inhalation of engine fumes and asphyxia. Originally, rescuers counted 30 bodies but a spokesman for the Italian coastguard said the real death toll stands at 52.

In a separate incident, another 15 people are feared drowned after their boat capsized around five miles off the coastal town of Zuwara on Wednesday. A spokesman for the coastguard there said they had saved 20 people and recovered three bodies. The survivors, primarily from Nigeria and Ghana, told the coastguard they were traveling in a group of about 40 when their boat overturned in bad weather. They had only travelled some four hours after they left the shoreline.

The coastguard started the rescue at 4am and continued with the search into the afternoon but no more bodies were spotted. The tragedies came during anespecially busy day in the waters outside Libya.The Italian coastguard said in a statement that around 3,000 people had been rescued in 10 different operations throughout Wednesday on the central Mediterranean route to Europe. That brings the total number of people rescued since Saturday to about 8,170 people.
Rescuers from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF), the Swedish coastguard and Italian Navy rescued at least 1,800 people between themselves. Most of them were picked up within a square mile some 30 miles north of Zuwara. Around 11am, rescuers from the Poseidon and MOAS were engaged with the boat in which the bodies were discovered when another wooden vessel with 600 migrants appeared on the horizon. An hour later, a dinghy with some 100 people on board was heading towards the rescue vessels.

The result is that some 150 people were left stranded on the wooden boat waiting while the Italian navy vessel Fiorillo made its way to the area because all other vessels in the area were filled to capacity. People started feeling sick provoking a chain reaction, while many more suffered from dehydration. Eventually, a doctor from MSF treated the most pressing cases and rescuers from MOAS supplied water making the wait more bearable.
According to Migrant Report, the migrants left Zuwara at around midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. Most are from Pakistan and Bangladesh and sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: Migrant Report

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buhari pledges not to abandon Christian girl held by Boko Haram

uhari pledges not to abandon Christian girl held by Boko Haram President Muhammadu Buhari is as committed to the freedom of the only Dapchi schoolgirl still in captivity as he was to the girls’ freedom when all 110 were in the captivity of Boko Haram terrorists, his office said Thursday. A statement by the Presidency, signed by Garba Shehu, said: “The Buhari administration will not relent in efforts to bring Leah Sharibu safely back home to her parents as it has done for the other girls after she was held back by the terrorists over her decision, as reported, not to convert from Christianity to Islam. “President Buhari is fully conscious of his duty under the constitution to protect all Nigerians, irrespective of faith, ethnic background or geopolitical location and will not shirk in this responsibility. “The President is equally mindful of the fact that true followers of Islam all over the world respect the injunction that there is no compulsion in religion. “To thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

35 BODIES RECOVERED

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian rescuers have recovered the bodies of 35 more Indonesian migrants killed when their boat sank three days ago, along with another survivor, taking the toll in the disaster to 50, officials said on Sunday. The survivor was recovered on Friday afternoon having spent more than a day in the water and was said to be in good health. "Thirty-five more bodies have been recovered since Friday," said Mohamad Aliyas Hamdan, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency official. "We expect to find more over the next few days," he added. Aliyas said the search operation would continue for the next three days, adding that from information gained from the 20 people rescued, there were believed to have been up to 80 people on the small vessel. Officials have said the overcrowded wooden boat capsized and sank in rough seas about 16 kilometres off the coast of central Malaysia's Selangor state before dawn on Thursday. The group were leaving Malaysia to r...
Post a Comment
Read more

NEW WAVES OF AIR STRIKES...........

Sana'a - Powerful explosions shook the Yemeni capital on Sunday, witnesses said, after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a rebel missile strike that killed dozens of Gulf soldiers. The witnesses said the coalition warplanes pounded positions of the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and bases of splinter troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The raids hit military bases on the Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sana'a, as well as the headquarters of the special forces. Also targeted were Huthi positions in the northern neighbourhoods of Sufan and Al-Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee to other areas for safety, the witnesses said. It comes after the missile attack Friday on an arms depot in Marib, east of Sanaa, killed 60 soldiers, including 45 Emiratis, 10 Saudis and five Bahrainis. The Huthi rebels said the attack was "revenge" for six months of deadly air raids, but th...
Post a Comment
Read more