The survivors were picked
up hours later by a passing merchant ship and brought to Sicily on an German
military vessel operating in the area.
Forty African migrants are
feared to have drowned when their rickety boat sank off Libya's coast, survivors
say.
They told UN and aid
agencies more than 120 people were on the boat when it started taking in water
on Wednesday.
A number of people -
including women and children - drowned in the chaos that followed. Nearly 90
migrants were rescued and later arrived in Italy.
The UN says 60,000 people
have already tried to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa this year.
More than 1,800 migrants
have died - a 20-fold increase on the same period in 2014.
ll of the migrants are
believed to have been from Sub-Saharan Africa, including Senegal, Mali and
Benin, Save the Children spokeswoman Giovanna Di Benedetto told the BBC.
Separately, Federico Fossi,
a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told AFP: "My colleagues are
interviewing the survivors... who arrived this afternoon in Augusta (Sicily),
and they are talking of 35 to 40 people missing at sea."
Each year, tens of
thousands seek to escape from poverty and conflicts in Africa and the Middle
East by heading for Europe.
BBC
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