34 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa drown in latest Mediterranean shipwreck

About 34 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have died in a latest shipwreck on the Mediterranean sea, the U.N migration agency has said.

The Moroccan navy and a Spanish aid agency put the survival figure at 26, according to reports.

Morocco’s interior ministry in a statement on Monday, October 1, 2018, said all the migrants on board the boat were from sub-Saharan Africa without giving further details.

The ministry said investigations showed that the organiser of the risky crossing of the Mediterranean sea was from Mali.

Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told Reuters that “the boat was adrift since Sunday with 60 people aboard. At least 34 have drowned, it looks like there were 26 survivors.”

In August 2018, the platform of Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria, MEPN, raised an alarm that over 700 Nigerians died in the Mediterranean Sea while migrating illegally so far in 2018.

The group said out of over 1,500 migrants that have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in 2018, many of them were Nigerians.

Nigerian leader, President Muhammadu Buhari had said those leaving the country through illegal means are doing so 'at their own risk'

He said the country will continue to repatriate Nigerians stuck abroad.

The president stated this during a joint press conference with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, late August in Abuja, the nation's capital.

Also from Business Insider Sub-Sahara Africa:

34 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa drown in latest Mediterranean shipwreck

About 34 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have died in a latest shipwreck on the Mediterranean sea, the U.N migration agency has said.

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