After nine days at sea in an inflatable dinghy, 61 survivors, most of them from Mali, were rescued by the Libyan coastguard and brought ashore, the International Organization for Migration said.
Twenty-two migrants, including three children, all originally from Mali, died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast, the UN said today, citing survivors who said people drowned or died of dehydration.
After nine days at sea in an inflatable dinghy, 61 survivors, most of them from Mali, were rescued by the Libyan coastguard and brought ashore, the International Organization for Migration said.
Mali’s government announced today, amid concerns that a famine crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine could greatly increase attempts to travel to Europe.
The 22 who died were among a group of 83 migrants who had been stranded on a boat in distress since June 22, Mali’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
There were “large increases” in migration flows through Niger and Mali to North Africa in the first quarter of 2022 compared to previous years, an IOM spokesman said.
The number of migrants leaving Niger between January and April was more than 45% higher than in the same period in 2021. The number of migrants leaving Mali almost doubled over the same period.
Analysts cite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic impact of the war in Ukraine as driving factors.
Spain, its southern neighbors and European Union officials are increasingly concerned that a food crisis exacerbated by the disruption of grain exports from Ukraine will trigger a chaotic exodus from the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa.
RES-EMP
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