Gunmen on speedboats have kidnapped scores of women and children from a migrant boat leaving Libya, an aid group said.

Armed men on two speedboats took off along with women and children after a rubber dinghy carrying 112 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea began sinking off the coast of Libya, an aid group said on Friday.

Dozens of men and boys who were on board the overcrowded boat jumped into the sea, said Doctors Without Borders. The group’s boat, Geo Barents, arrived at the scene in international waters on Thursday, rescued 83 men and unaccompanied minor children, and pulled 70 of them out of the sea.

Two speedboats, identified as belonging to the Libyan Coast Guard, were nearby. Migrants later said that some of them shot. No bodies were reported.

Doctors Without Borders posted a number of photos after the incident on social media, writing: “This aggressive and irresponsible behavior by armed men is unacceptable as it has endangered the lives of many people and different family members.

One speed boat carrying 24 women and four children told Geo Barents that they would hand them over once the men were rescued, said Doctors Without Borders spokesperson Maurizio Debbane.

But instead, they sped off. It was not yet clear who the armed men are and what happened to the women and children.

The rescued migrants were from Eritrea, Yemen and Ethiopia.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, appealed to authorities and organizations in the region to help reunite families, stressing that Libya is not a safe place.

“Many people were on board a rubber boat that was capsizing, and they were being threatened by armed men who were shooting,” said Maria Eliana Tunno, a psychologist on board the Geo Barents. “They live in a terrible way, being separated from their wives and daughters, who have been deprived of them.

One man jumped into the water trying to find his wife and two children, a four-month-old and a 10-year-old child.

Tunno described the rescued men and boys as “extremely tired, desperate and scared,” adding that many had experienced torture and inhumane treatment in Libya.

“Survivors are concerned and worried about the fate of their female relatives and children, who have been beaten and held at gunpoint and will once again face a cycle of violence, detention, torture and extortion,” MSF said in a social media post.

More than 62,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. That’s a big drop from the more than 152,000 who arrived at the same time in 2023.

The United Nations reports that 2,124 migrants have died trying to cross the dangerous Mediterranean this year. According to the UN/’s International Organization for Migration, about 60 percent of people who have died during migration are related to drowning.

The government led by Italy’s left-leaning Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni has adopted policies aimed at reducing immigration to Italy, promoting multimillion-euro deals with Tunisia and Egypt aimed at curbing the exodus, and building facilities in Albania to screen migrants. outside the borders of Europe. .