Italian prosecutors have began investigations into the death of 26 Nigerian women who lost their lives while attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea.
BBC reports that most of them between the age of 14-18 may have been sexually abused and murdered as they attempted to cross the sea.
It was gathered that their bodies were currently in a Spanish warship, Cantabria, at the sea which is also carrying hundreds of other migrants, including other Nigerian survivors.
Twenty-three of the Nigerians were said to have been on a rubber boat with 64 other migrants prior to their deaths.
Italian media report a total of 375 migrants rescued from the sea and currently in the warship are sub-Saharan Africans from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan.
Among the survivors were 52 children and 90 women, eight of whom are said to be pregnant.
The 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.
Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM spokesman, had said then that the number made it 649 deaths recorded in the first 86 days of 2017.
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