The Nigerian government is to investigate the alleged deaths of 26 Nigerian girls on the Mediterranean Sea. This was in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, released in Abuja, late on Tuesday. The statement, signed by spokesman, Dr. Tope Elias-Fatile, said that the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been in constant touch with its mission in Rome to ascertain the veracity of the report.
“The Ministry wishes to assure the general public that further details would be made known on this issue once confirmed and accurate information are received from the Mission,” the statement said. The development follows foreign media reports that 26 Nigerian girls had been found dead on the Mediterranean Sea.
It is understood that two men, one of them an Egyptian and the other a Libyan. Have been arrested and charged in Italy as investigators look into the death of 26 Nigerian women and girls, who are suspected to have been murdered while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
The men arrested have been named as Al Mabrouc Wisam Harar, from Libya, and Egyptian Mohamed Ali Al Bouzid. The bodies of the women were brought to the southern Italian port of Salerno by the Spanish ship Cantabria on Sunday, and prosecutors opened an investigation over suspicions that the women, some as young as 14, may have been abused and killed.