Update: Autopsy On 26 Female Nigerian Migrants Released
The post-mortem examinations on the bodies of 26 teenage migrant girls found dead in the Mediterranean in early November confirmed they almost all drowned at sea.
This was reported by Italian news agencies on Wednesday.The loss of the girls — believed to be aged 14 to 18 — has been described by the Nigerian foreign ministry as “a monumental loss and a sad moment for our country”.
According to the post-mortems carried out in Salerno in southern Italy, 25 of the girls died of asphyxiation in the water, most of them when the inflatable dinghy they were travelling on sank.
One girl suffered a wound to her liver. Two of the dead were pregnant. The autopsies found no recent trace of physical or sexual violence.
The bodies of the victims were found floating in the water by a Spanish military ship and brought to Italy on November 3 after two separate rescue operations.
