THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The United Nations says 90 people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya, after a people smuggler’s boat capsized.
The United Nations’ migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), believes just three people have survived the boat accident, in the latest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea.
The boat was carrying mostly Pakistani migrants.
“At least 90 migrants are reported to have drowned, when a boat capsized off the coast of Libya this morning”, the IOM said in a statement.
It added that “10 bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores”, including two Libyan nationals and eight Pakistanis.
Two survivors from the disaster had swum to shore, while another was rescued by a fishing boat, IOM further said.
The Libyan Coast Guard reported on 10 January that up to 100 migrants, majority of whom from The Gambia, Senegal, Sudan, Mali and Nigeria, remained missing in the third deadly shipwreck on the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of the year. Now, barely a month into 2018 there are already reports of more than 350 migrants or refugees dead or missing on the Central Mediterranean route. Analysts suggest that 2018 may be even deadlier for migrants.
Ken Kamara
