Twenty-six Nigerian women believed to be migrants have been found dead on a Spanish warship in the Italian coast city of Salerno.
According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, their remains have since been recovered from the warship, Cantabria.
The ship, which docked in Salerno, was found to be carrying 375 rescued migrants and the dead women.
According to the report, 23 of the dead women were on a rubber boat with 64 other people.
It also quoted Italian media report that the women’s bodies were kept in a refrigerated section of the warship.
Most of them were between the ages of 14 and 18.
The spokesman of the UNHCR, Marco Rotunno, said the 26 dead were involved in a shipwreck off Libya.
Most of the 375 survivors brought to Salerno were sub-Saharan Africans from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan, the daily La Repubblica reports.
Among them were 90 women – eight of them pregnant – and 52 children.
There were also some Libyan men and women on board.
The BBC said: “People-smuggling gangs charge each migrant about $6,000 (£4,578) to get to Italy, $4,000 of which is for the trans-Saharan journey to Libya, according to the Italian aid group L’Abbraccio. Many migrants have reported violence, including torture and sexual abuse by the gangs.
“Italian prosecutors are investigating the deaths of 26 Nigerian women – most of them teenagers – whose bodies were recovered at sea.
“There are suspicions that they may have been sexually abused and murdered as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean. Five migrants are being questioned in the southern port of Salerno.”
Trending
- Nigeria: The changing governance story, by Temitope Ajayi
- Access Holdings’ shareholders back capital raising, hail Aig-Imoukhuede’s return
- Transcorp Power Plc records 775% PBT jump in Q1 2024
- Court remands man for allegedly defiling daughter
- Okuama killing: Army releases detained traditional ruler to Senator + Photos
- Stakeholders, organisers rename Nigeria’s FA Cup
- Transcorp Power appoints Non-Executive Directors
- Troops neutralise 192 terrorists, apprehend 341 others in one week – DHQ