GENEVA — An international migration watcher said 19 Ethiopian migrants suffocated earlier this month along Zambia’s border with Congo inside a container truck, where survivors inside banged on the sides until border officials opened it.
The International Organization for Migration in Geneva provided new details Friday about the deaths discovered June 16 near the Zambian town of Mansa.
Spokesman Joel Millman said initial reports mistakenly said the victims were Somalis. He said migrants from around Africa have traveled toward South Africa in search of economic opportunity for years, but the Organization for Migration has never seen such a high number of deaths from suffocation in an overcrowded truck in a single incident.