Somali beauty-salon owner dies trying to reach French island of Mayotte

Woman's body thrown overboard after boat abandoned by people smugglers in the Indian Ocean.

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"We were told by survivors that she died from hunger," the 26-year-old's stepsister Samira tells the BBC by phone.

The family learned from them that Fathi died in one of two small boats, adrift in the Indian Ocean for about 14 days, after being abandoned by the smugglers.

"People were eating raw fish and drinking sea water, which she refused. They [the survivors] said she started hallucinating before she died. And after that they threw her body into the ocean," Samira tells the BBC.

Fathi's family learned of her death from fellow Somalis who had been rescued by fishermen off the coast of Madagascar about a week ago.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8d5334vmyo

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