Dozens of African migrants drown in the Mediterranean

Dozens of African migrants are said to have died in a new migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean sea.

On #AfricaLive Scores of African Migrants drown after boat carrying 400 people capsizes in Mediterranean pic.twitter.com/PaGIzYAWpE

— CCTV Africa (@cctvnewsafrica) April 18, 2016

Media reports indicate that most of the migrants aboard the boat were fleeing from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, hoping to reach Italy.

Following the incident, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said that Europe needed to reflect in the face of yet another migrant crisis

“We really need to reflect, especially today, facing yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died, on the day we are marking the first anniversary of the shipwreck in which 800 people lost their lives,” he said.

In a seperate incident SOS Mediterranee, a humanitarian organisation says six bodies were found and 108 migrants rescued from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya

They were citizens of several African countries including Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Ethiopia, SOS Mediterranee added.

Reuters reported that survivors from the boat were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The United Nations says that about 180,000 people have attempted to reach Europe by sea this year with nearly 800 lives lost.

News agencies