(Photo: Irish Defense Forces / HANDOUT, EPA)Almost 100 people fleeing Libya were missing and feared dead Thursday after their crowded boat was battered by high waves and sank in the Mediterranean Sea, Libyan officials said. General Ayoub Gassim, a Navy spokesman in Tripoli, said a survivor reported that 126 people set off Wednesday from Garabulli in northwest Libya, The Guardian reported. "Ninety-seven illegal migrants are still missing or they have drowned." The UNHCR reported that 3,771 lives had been lost in 2015. Already in 2016, "3,930 people reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean so far this year," UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler tweeted Thursday.

Source: Libya Today October 27, 2016 14:48 UTC