More than 60 migrants presumed dead after boat sinks off Libya, says UN

Victims were from Nigeria, the Gambia and other African countries and included women and children, UN agency says

Sixty-one migrants are missing and presumed dead after their boat sank off Libya’s coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said, in the latest migrant tragedy off north Africa.

The “large number of migrants” are believed to have died because of high waves which swamped their vessel after it left from Zuwara, on Libya’s north-west coast, the IOM’s Libya office said in a statement on Saturday.