Africans die at Sea trying to reach Europe

At least 15 Africans drowned when their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, a UN spokeswoman reported, in the second incident of its kind in just over a week.

Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, reported that the flimsy raft with 100 people on board capsized shortly after setting sail from the Libyan city of Zawiya on Friday.

The boat began to capsize Sunday morning and the Libyan coast guard managed to rescue at least 95 migrants, including six women and two minors, the spokesperson said.

He added that many of those rescued suffered fuel burns and hypothermia, and that some were taken to hospital.

It is the most recent wreck of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Last week at least 41 migrants died as part of about 120 who boarded a raft in Libya on February 19.

Libya has become a major transit point for Arab and African migrants seeking to reach Europe after the North African country plunged into a bloody civil war following the uprising that toppled dictator Moamar Gaddafi in 2011.

Traffickers often send desperate families onto flimsy rafts that eventually capsize and are shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. In the past years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived in Europe either on their own account or after being rescued on the high seas.