Autopsy conducted by Italian investigators on the death of 26 Nigerian girls found on a Spanish warship November 3 has confirmed ”they almost all drowned at sea”.
Italian news agencies reported during the week that in the autopsy carried out in Salerno in southern Italy, 25 died of asphyxiation in the water, when the inflatable dinghy they were travelling on sank.
One female suffered a wound to her liver, two of the dead were pregnant and the autopsies found no recent trace of physical or sexual violence.
The bodies of the victims were found on Spanish military ship and brought to Italy on November 3 after two separate rescue operations. In both cases, dozens of other migrants, mostly men, were also rescued after they tried to cross to Europe from Libya.
Family members, who survived the disaster, have identified some of the victims and investigators managed to contact relatives of others after discovering phone numbers inside the victims’ clothing.
Funerals for the 26 will took place on Friday in Salerno, where a day of mourning was declared.
A white rose will be placed on each coffin, while smaller roses will be placed for the two unborn children.
According to Italy’s interior ministry, more than 111,700 people have reached the country by sea in the first 10 months of 2017, a decrease of 30 per cent from the same period last year. The UN has said 80 per cent of young Nigerian women arriving in Italy are already in the clutches of prostitution networks, or quickly fall under their control.
The Nigerian government described the loss of the females, believed to be teenagers as “a monumental loss and a sad moment for our country” and called for an international investigation into the incident.
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