Article author:
Reuters
Dakar — Twenty-two migrants from Mali, including three children, died off the coast of Libya, the Mali government said Tuesday.
The dead have been part of a group of 83 migrants stuck on a ship in distress since June 22, a foreign ministry of Marian said in a statement.
Of these, 61 were rescued with the help of the United Nations immigration agency IOM, including some Mali citizens.
An IOM spokesman said in the first quarter of 2022 that the flow of migrants to North Africa via Niger and Mali had "significantly increased" compared to the previous year.
Analysts point out that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic collapse of the war in Ukraine are the drivers. (Report by Sofia Christensen, additional report by Edward McAllister, edited by Edmund Blair and Angus MacSwan)
