Over 200 Somalians Drown After Their Boat Capsizes In The Mediterranean Sea

Admin 19-Apr-2016 10:40:21 Inothernews

Over 200 Somalians Drown After Their Boat Capsizes In The Mediterranean Sea


Somalia's government said on Monday about 200 or more Somalis may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross illegally to Europe, many of them teenagers, when the boat they were on capsized after leaving the Egyptian shore. However, a report by BBC Arabic states that the casualties might have gone up to 400. Italian President Sergio Mattarella had said earlier on Monday that several hundred people appeared to have died in a new tragedy in the Mediterranean, after unconfirmed reports spoke of up to 400 victims of capsizing near Egypt's coast.



More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas.

"We have no fixed number but it is between 200 and 300 Somalis," Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir told Reuters by telephone when asked about possible Somali deaths in the latest incident.

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Another Somali government statement, which offered condolences, put the number at "nearly 200", saying they were mostly teenagers. It said the boat they were on had capsized after leaving Egypt.

"There is no clear number since they are not travelling legally," the minister said, adding that he understood the boat might have been carrying about 500 people, of which 200 to 300 were Somalis "and most of them had died". He did not give a precise timing for the incident.

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