Woman dies after migrant boat capsizes off Lampedusa
A woman from Guinea drowned in waters off Lampedusa on Friday after the boat she was travelling on capsized.
Another 46 people also on board were rescued by finance police and disembarked together with the body on the tiny Sicilian island.
The rescued migrants and refugees said they were from Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Gambia, Mali and Senegal, and included 12 women and 5 minors.
Their 7-m boat reportedly overturned when they stood up together on seeing the finance police patrol boat to call for help.
They said they had departed from Sfax in Tunisia at dawn on Thursday and that they had paid 1,500 Tunisian dinars (around 450 euros) for the sea crossing.
Earlier on Friday the coast guard intervened to rescue a group of 43 people including 14 women and 4 minors from Burkina Faso and Guinea from a boat adrift in waters off Lampedusa.
They were the first group to arrive by sea after a five-day hiatus due to bad weather.
Via ANSA
