Shipwreck in coast of Libya leaves more than 200 dead immigrants

More than 200 migrants have disappeared in the shipwreck of two boats on the coast of Libya, according to nine survivors rescued by Italian coastguards, said this Wednesday several international organizations.

“There are nine, safe and sound after four days at sea. The other 203 were swallowed by the waves,” announced on Twitter Carlotta Sami, a spokesman in Italy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The nine survivors, who speak French and probably come from West Africa, arrived to Lampedusa. Sami said that most immigrants were from Mali and Senegal.

The spokeswoman spoke of “this horrible tragedy” on the last chapter of several tragedies of overloaded boats of migrants trying to reach to Europe from Africa.

According to preliminary information gathered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the emigrants departed on Saturday from a beach in Libya on board two inflatable boats, loaded each one with over a hundred people, which then were shipwrecked, probably on Monday.