Dozens feared dead as boat sinks

A boat carrying about 80 passengers and crew sank this week off Nigeria’s southern Atlantic coast leaving some 48 people dead, news organisations reported on Friday. One of the survivors said the overcrowded boat, a converted fishing trawler with sub-standard facilities, capsized in heavy seas en route for Equatorial Guinea. Some people drifted for hours clinging to cargo or wearing the few available life jackets before other boat operators and fishermen arrived to rescue them, ‘The Guardian’ reported the survivor as saying. According to the daily, most of the passengers were believed to be illegal immigrants.