Nine survivors landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday, out of more than 200 who had left Libya on Saturday in two rubber dinghies, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
“Nine were saved after four days at sea. The other 203 were swallowed by the waves,” said Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Italy.
The IOM said the surviving migrants spoke French, so probably came from west African nations such as Ivory Coast and Senegal.
“Because of the bad weather conditions, the two dinghies collapsed and the people fell at sea. Many drowned,” IOM official Flavio Di Giacomo said.
He said the migrants had left with another dinghy carrying a group of Africans, 29 of whom were killed by exposure trying to make the short but perilous crossing from Libya to Lampedusa.
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