13 migrants die in shipping container

CAIRO — Thirteen African migrants suffocated inside a shipping container while being transported over four days between two Libyan towns, a Red Crescent official said Thursday.

Osama al-Fadly, head of the Red Crescent in Libya, told the Associated Press that the deceased were among 69 migrants, many from Mali, who were packed into the container.

The locked container was transported from the central town of Bani Walid to Khoms in western Libya, from where the migrants were to be taken across the Mediterranean.

Instead, the traffickers unloaded the human cargo near an anti-trafficking force in Khoms on Tuesday. Al-Fadly said the deaths occurred Monday.

This week, dozens of migrants washed ashore at the western Libyan city of Zawiya after their rubber boat lost its engine. A survivor said more than 100 people drowned in stormy weather.