Italian investigators nab Libyan, Egyptian in connection with death of 26 Nigerian girls

Two days after the lifeless and sexually abused bodies of 26 Nigerian women who attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea were discovered, Italian investigators have arrested an Egyptian and a Libyan in connection with their deaths.

According to reports, the arrested men identified as Al Mabrouc Wisam Harar, from Libya, and Egyptian Mohamed Ali Al Bouzid were identified by survivors who were among the 375 brought to Salerno by Cantabria.

The pair are believed to have skippered one of the boats which ferried the women even as prosecutors opened an investigation over suspicions that the women, some as young as 14, may have been abused and killed.

Italy spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Marco Rotunno, said his colleagues were at the port in Salerno when the bodies were brought in. “It was a very tough experience,” he said.

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“One lady from Nigeria lost all her three children,” adding that; “90% of migrant women arrive with bruises and other signs of violence.”

“It’s very rare to find a woman who hasn’t been abused, only in exceptional cases, maybe when they are travelling with their husband. But also women travelling alone with their children have been abused.”

According to reports by the BBC, twenty-three of the dead women had been on a rubber boat with 64 other people.

The report also added that most of the 375 survivors brought to Salerno were sub-Saharan Africans, from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan, the daily La Republica reports.

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