CAIRO, July 17, 2018 (News Wires) — Libya's coast guard says it has intercepted some 160 Europe-bound African migrants, including dozens of children and women, in the Mediterranean Sea near its shores. Spokesman Ayoub Gassim says a boat carrying 158 passengers including 34 women and nine children was stopped Monday off the coast of the western town of Khoms. Libya has emerged as a major transit point to Europe for those fleeing poverty and civil war elsewhere in Africa. Traffickers have exploited Libya's chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime ruler Moammar Gaddafi. He says the migrants were given humanitarian and medical aid, and were taken to a refugee camp in Khoms town. On Monday the Libyan authorities said that at least eight people, mainly children, died of suffocation inside a shipping container crammed with migrants in the western coastal city of Zuwara. The city's security authorities said that the deceased — six children, a woman and a young man — were among around 100 migrants packed into the locked container for a long time. They say the other migrants, who are of African, Arab and Pakistani nationalities, were taken to local hospital for treatment. Libyan authorities have stepped up efforts to stem the flow of migrants, with European assistance.
