A pregnant Nigerian
woman among the 6,500 migrants rescued on the Mediterannean sea
delivered a baby on board before rescue came.
According
to The Telegraph, the baby was born on board an Italian navy ship, the
Bettica after her mother, who is Nigerian, was rescued from a boat
floating off the coast of Libya on Monday.
The newborn baby and her mother are said to in good health.
The
Nigerian woman was among the 6770 migrants rescued from four different
boats, all of them sent from the coast of Libya by smuggling gangs from
Middle East and Africa.
“The mother was brought on board in dramatic circumstances – her labour had already started,” the navy said in a statement.
The
baby was delivered by Sara Modde, a doctor with the Order of Malta, a
Catholic charity that has teams of medics on board many of the search
and rescue vessels operating in the Mediterranean.
Vincenzo
Pascale, the captain of the Italian navy ship on which the baby was
born, said: "She is a beautiful baby girl who has touched everyone on
board. The mother started to have contractions as soon as she was
brought aboard and gave birth after eight hours.
"We made a little crib and put it next to the mother, who was worn out by the labour," he told Italian media.
However,
not all of them survived the crossing. Seven dead bodies were found
aboard two large rubber dinghies packed with migrants, while the corpses
of three others, who had apparently jumped or fallen into the sea when
they saw rescue vessels approach, were pulled from the water.
It was
further reported that the smugglers had packed people into the boats so
tightly that they were unable to move their legs and many were
suffering from cramp.
Source : The Telegraph
Photo Credit : EPA/FPA/Getty/Darin For The Telegraph
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