170 Migrants Feared Lost at Sea Off Libya
A Libyan coastguard official said on Friday a boat carrying 170 illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa was feared lost at sea off the capital Tripoli.
"We are looking for 170 African passengers on a wooden boat that has foundered off the Guarakouzi area" some 60 kilometers (35 miles) east of Tripoli, coastguard official Abdellatif Mohammed Ibrahim told Agence France-Presse.
"A few miles off the coast, we found the remains of a wooden boat which had had some 200 migrants on board," he said.
"We managed to save 16 people and recovered 15 bodies, but the search continues for some 170 people who disappeared at sea," Ibrahim told AFP.
He said the coastguard was lacking in resources, and had only one patrol boat to search for the missing people.
An AFP journalist reported seeing the body of a child who was nevertheless wearing a life-jacket.
The coastguard official was unable to give any firm details of the nationalities of the victims or survivors, but added: "It seems that among them are Somalis and Eritreans."
Source: Agence France Presse
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