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CAIRO At least 74 bodies of African migrants have washed ashore in western Libya, the Libyan Red Crescent said Tuesday, the latest tragedy at sea along a perilous but increasingly popular trafficking route to Europe.

The bodies were found near the western Libyan city of Zawiya on Monday, Red Crescent spokesman Mohammed al-Misrati told The Associated Press, adding that he feared more might surface. He said a torn rubber boat, the kind that usually carry up to 120 people, was found nearby.

The Red Crescent's branch in Zawiya said there are bodies still floating out at sea but it has no means to retrieve them.

The International Organization of Migration said the traffickers took the engine and left the boat to drift. Another 12 migrants remain missing and are "presumed drowned," and a sole survivor was transferred to a hospital in a coma, the U.N. migration agency said on Twitter.

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The Red Crescent posted photographs of dozens of bodies in white and black bags, lined up along the shore. Al-Misrati said the bodies would be taken to a cemetery for unidentified people in the capital, Tripoli. The Red Crescent appealed for help on Facebook, saying there are no vehicles to transport the bodies.

Al-Misrati had initially said the bodies were found overnight Tuesday, but later clarified that they were recovered Monday afternoon and evening.

Libyan coast guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said over 500 migrants were rescued at sea on Friday and Saturday off the coast of Sebratha, a city to the west of Zawiya. The migrants' boats were about 5-7 miles (8-11 kilometers) from the coast.

Gassim said the smugglers pack larger rubber boats with up to 180 people, dramatically increasing the risk of capsizing.

"We are seeing the new boats, which are not equipped with anything, but they carry more people," he said. "This is going to be even more disastrous for the migrants."

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The Libya to Italy smuggling route across the Mediterranean has seen record numbers of migrant drownings in 2016, Fabrice Leggeri, director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said last week. Some 4,579 migrant deaths were documented in 2016, up from 2,869 deaths the previous year and 3,161 in 2014. The real number of deaths is believed to be much higher.

Leggeri blamed the small dinghies and poor vessels used by the smugglers for the high death rate. The smugglers also appear more willing to brave the choppy winter sea. January alone saw 228 recorded deaths, by far the biggest monthly toll in recent years. IOM says the latest tragedy brings the total death toll this year to 365.

More than 180,000 people made the crossing last year, an increase of 17 percent from 2015.

Libya was plunged into turmoil by the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and has since emerged as a popular, if extremely dangerous, route to Europe for those fleeing poverty and civil war elsewhere in Africa.

Libya is largely governed by local militias, many of which profit from the trafficking. Rights groups say migrants traversing Libya have been tortured, raped and subjected to forced labor.

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The European Union has plans to halt the tide by training the Libyan coast guard and stepping up cooperation with neighboring Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. But rights groups fear that such measures could leave tens of thousands of migrants stranded in the restive country.

The plan would also require a much stronger Libyan government capable of controlling the country's waters. At present, Libya is split between two competing governments which convene in different parts of the country.

The head of Doctors Without Borders, Arjan Hehenkamp, says the EU plan shows that it is "delusional about just how dangerous the situation in Libya really is."

His organization, also known by its French acronym MSF, has aided in the sea rescues. He said survivors have recounted starving in Libyan detention centers and other abuses.

Earlier this month, Italy reached a deal with the U.N.-brokered government in Tripoli, which is not recognized by rival authorities in the east, to train and equip the Libyan coast guard and improve conditions in detention centers.

Mohamed Siala, the foreign minister of the U.N.-backed government, told the AP that 70 coast guards have received training and a second group will follow. He denied allegations by critics that the deal would pave the way for the resettlement of migrants inside Libya.

He expressed fear, however, that the flow of migrants would increase this spring, saying rescue operations have encouraged more migrants to risk the journey.

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Bodies of 74 migrants heading to Europe wash up in Libya - Fox News

GENEVA

The International Organization for Migration reports a surge in the number of migrant deaths on the Mediterranean Seas central route linking Libya to Italy in the first two months of the year.

The IOM estimates 326 migrants and refugees have died this year while transiting by sea from Libya to Italy, compared to just 97 fatalities during the same period last year.

While the numbers are alarming, IOM spokesman Joel Millman said they do not reflect the full scope of the sea tragedies as many bodies are never recovered and an unknown number of victims remain missing.

He said most of the victims are migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. However, he told VOA not everyone making the perilous sea journey in smugglers' boats is a migrant who intended to go to Europe.

FILE - An image taken from video shot on Jan. 27, 2017 by the Italian Coast Guard shows migrants being rescued from members of Italian Coast Guard vessel Diciotti in the central Mediterranean sea.

There is a thriving business in kidnapping right now in Libya," said Millman, "where people are being taken off the street, held to paid ransom and forced into these boats just because the ransom takers are done with them and they do not want to try to pick them up again and go through the long process of trying to ring a few hundred euros out of a family somewhere thousands of miles to the south.

Millman said that is not the only horrendous crime being perpetrated against the defenseless people. He said human smugglers have been employing another, potentially lethal tactic stealing engines from the boats and leaving the vessels drifting in the water with people aboard.

They do not know whether this is the Mafia that is cracking down on competition, that is not paying and punishing them by taking the engine, or weather and it could be a mixture of both," he said. "Parts and vessels are so hard to come by now, with the amount of migrants that are coming through, that the smugglers just feel that they need to recover the expensive parts of their operation, the components as quickly as they can.

Millman said passengers are promised that a rescue ship is on its way. He said in many cases that has happened, but there have been other instances where the migrants have been left adrift without any help on the horizon.

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Migrant Fatalities Surge on Libya-Italy Mediterranean Route - Voice of America

People on a boat carrying 267 migrants, including men, women and children, off the coast of Libya in the southern Mediterranean Sea. PHOTO:AFP

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), citing the Libyan Red Crescent, said on its website that the African migrants had been trapped for four days in the metal container.

Some of the 56 who survived were suffering from various injuries and fractures and needed immediate medical attention.

They were of different African nationalities. Among them were 13 bodies, including those of a girl, 13, and a 14-year-old boy.

A Khoms resident told AFP on condition of anonymity that the container had been on a truck headed for a beach in Khoms, from where the migrants were expected to board a boat for Europe, when it was stopped and searched at a checkpoint.

The Red Crescent branch at Khoms said on its Facebook page that the survivors and the 13 bodies were found dumped outside a detention centre for migrants in the town.

Fawzi Abdel Ali, a Red Crescent spokesman in Khoms, told the IFRC that when volunteers arrived, they provided first aid, psychological first aid, food and blankets for the 56 survivors, among them a five-year-old girl called Aisha.

On Wednesday, about 750 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast after seven rescue operations mounted by the Italian coast guard and an international aid group.

Most of them were also from sub-Saharan Africa.

On Thursday, 85 migrants were rescued off the coast about 47 kilometres west of Tripoli, Ayoub Qassem, spokesman for the Libyan Navy, told AFP, saying they included several African women and five infants.

People smugglers have taken advantage of the chaos gripping Libya since its 2011 revolution that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi to boost their lucrative trade.

Most departures take place from the west of Libya, usually heading for Italy 300 kilometres (190 miles) away across the Mediterranean.

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13 Europe-bound migrants suffocate in Libya container - Guardian

Beirut/Geneva, 21 February The Libyan Red Crescent has recovered the bodies of 74 people who washed ashore yesterday (20 February), near Zawiya on Libyas northern coast.

Photos are available for download here.

It appears that the deceased had been on a boat attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. A torn rubber dinghy was reportedly found nearby.

Libyan Red Crescent volunteers collected the bodies of the deceased with dignity, placing them in body bags for transfer to a local hospital.

More than 270 people migrating are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean in the first weeks of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In 2016, more than 5,000 deaths at sea were recorded, making it the deadliest year on record.

The IFRC calls for collective international action to avert further deaths like these which are tragic and entirely preventable.

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News alert: Libyan Red Crescent recovers 74 bodies in northern Libya, PHOTOS AVAILABLE - International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent...

LONDON

The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has told VOA the only way to restore peace in Libya is to bring rival factions together, and that will require cooperative efforts by many parties, including Russia.

General Thomas Waldhauser, who heads the U.S. Africa Command, discussed the continuing political chaos in Libya while in Germany for the recent Munich Security Conference.

Libya is a checkerboard of separate, divided power centers: The internationally backed Government of National Accord controls only part of Tripoli, while rival power bases vie for control over the rest of the capital and other cities. Along the North African coast, the head of the Libyan National Army, General Khalifa Haftar, holds sway over much of eastern Libya through his House of Representatives.

FILE - Marine Corps Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser is seen at Camp Pendleton, California, March 30, 2012.

Waldhauser says Haftar's influence "is something to be dealt with," and that eastern Libya "is where a political solution ... has to take place," in large part because the army chief controls most of Libya's oilfields.

"This is where it all begins," the American commander says, and also where Russia comes in.

Russia invests in Libya's oil

Waldhauser noted it is apparent Russia wants to become actively involved in trying to resolve Libya's political unrest not least for its own economic interests and said he welcomes that.

Russia's state-owned oil giant Rosneft has offered billions of dollars in investments to Libya's National Oil Company (NOC), and officials of the two companies announced Tuesday in London that they have a preliminary agreement to pursue a development program. Russia also committed itself to buying an undisclosed share of Libya's future crude oil output.

FILE - A plaque for the Rosneft Oli Company is seen outside the company headquarters in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 18, 2012.

The AFRICOM chief said the key to political progress in Libya, which would enable the country to get the greatest benefit from such international deals, is cooperation between the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital and Haftar and the Libyan National Army in the east.

"The goal is to get those two together," Waldhauser said. "The goal is to get those two to talk, and the goal is to make some accommodation in that regard."

Kremlin's broader influence

Russia has been trying to gain a larger grip on oil supplies in the Mediterranean and extend its influence in the Middle East and North Africa more broadly. Rosneft's agreement with NOC, announced at an international oil conference in the British capital, was in addition to a separate deal for Russia to prefinance crude exports from Kurdistan, making Rosneft the first major oil company to take an active role in the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. Rosneft also recently acquired a stake in the Zohr gas field in Egypt.

The Libyan oil company estimates it needs $20 billion to reach its production goal of 2.1 million barrels per day within five years.

FILE - An anti-government rebel sits with an anti-aircraft weapon in front of an oil refinery in Ras Lanouf, eastern Libya, March 5, 2011.

Turning again to Libya's political situation and rivalries, Waldhauser said many parties are trying to assist.

"The Egyptians and Russians are also involved in trying to get this all together, because at the end of day a political solution is going to require" the participation of both General Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the GNA, the U.S. commander said.

U.S. supports Tripoli faction

U.S. forces also have been actively fighting against the Islamic State group in Libya most notably last month, when American B-2 bombers flew a 9,400-kilometer mission from their base in the central U.S. to strike IS training camps in Libya and Waldhauser says the extremists' efforts to expand in the north African nation have taken a significant setback.

"It has been very complicated and it continues to remain very complicated. Perhaps, if it's possible, even getting more complicated," Waldhauer added. "Our official government position is to support the GNA. And at AFRICOM, we've had a very good and close relationship not only with our State Department personnel, but with Prime Minister Surraj as well."

The AFRICOM chief, who oversees U.S. military operations throughout Africa, was speaking in Munich last week about American participation in Operation Flintlock, a joint military exercise hosted by seven African nations.

FILE - Chadian troops participate in the closing ceremony of operation Flintlock in an army base in N'djamena, Chad, March 9, 2015.

American forces in Africa are eager to build partnerships in the sub-Saharan region to tackle terrorists particularly Islamic State extremists, but also other dangerous groups. Waldhauser said the U.S. works to strengthen its regional partnerships by helping African nations develop their infrastructure, with training and also with crisis response.

U.S. can help in crises

"Many times we think of [crisis response] as a military operation," the American commander said. "But crisis response is something we would be very, very involved in if there was a humanitarian disaster famine in Somalia, for example; the Ebola breakout is another example. We do pay close attention to that."

Nigeria is a key regional partner, and the United States is providing intelligence support and other assistance in the country's fight against the Islamic State-affiliated terror group Boko Haram. A Nigerian representative to the Munich Security Conference, Major-General Babagana Monguno, said the increasing expansion of terror groups across national borders means international cooperation is vital.

"The uprising in Libya and the eventual capitulation of the Gadhafi government resulted in a southward flow of arms and human beings," Monguno said. "The most natural place in sub-Saharan Africa for this flow was Nigeria."

Importance of 'battlefield ethics'

In the course of their efforts to suppress Boko Haram, Nigerian military forces have been accused of human-rights abuses by Amnesty International and others. Waldhauser said the United States takes such allegations against its partners seriously.

"We understand the requirement for battlefield ethics," he told VOA. "We make it part of our training, and we try to continue to emphasize that ... in the legal system [of the partner nations] and in our discussions with key leaders, as well."

Operation Flintlock 2017, which is just getting underway, will bring together 2,000 service personnel from more than 20 African, European and North African nations.

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US Sees a Role for Russia in Trying to Restore Peace in Libya - Voice of America