Humanitarian group says 100 migrants die off Libyan coast

Cairo: Doctors Without Borders says more than 100 people have died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast and the remaining survivors are being held in detention in Libya.

The humanitarian organization says in a Monday news release the shipwreck occurred Sept. 1 and survivors include people with severe burns, pregnant women and babies. A team from the organization provided medical care.

The group says two rubber boats left the Libyan coast carrying migrants from Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Libya, Algeria and Egypt. One of the boats deflated and sank.

The Libyan Coast Guard recovered 276 survivors from both boats and brought them to the port city of Khoms, Libya, and only two bodies were reportedly recovered.

Libya has emerged as a major transit point to Europe for those fleeing poverty and civil war elsewhere in Africa.

Projects financed by Beijing might produce a bigger payoff because Chinese companies work faster and often complete projects within months, while traditional Western-backed projects can require years, Parks said.

Also, they often focus on linking inland areas with ports, which increases export revenue, in contrast to traditional projects that connect areas within the same country, he said.

The ruling Communist Party has financed building projects abroad since the 1960s, when it paid for a railway to carry copper from Zambia in southern Africa across Tanzania to the port of Dar-es-Salaam.

Lending boomed following rapid Chinese economic growth in the 1990s.

In the 15 years through 2014, Beijing lent or gave USD 354.4 billion in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, equal to nearly 90 percent of the USD 394.6 billion from the United States, according to AidData.

But it said only 23 per cent of Chinese spending counted as aid by international standards, compared with 93 per cent of US spending.