A Nigerian woman has given birth to a boy on
board a rescue ship in the Mediterranean after
being plucked from an overcrowded rubber
dinghy.
Medical charity MSF said because the baby was
born in international waters, his nationality was
still under
debate.
A midwife on board the ship MV Aquarius
described the birth as "normal... in dangerously
abnormal conditions".
Thousands of refugees and migrants risk the
dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe in
search of a better life.
Last year, more than 3,700 people are believed
to have died attempting the journey.
MSF said that the baby's parents, Otas and
Faith Oqunbor, had named him Newman Otas.
They had been making the perilous crossing with
their two other children, aged seven and five, and
were rescued just 24 hours before the baby was
born.
MSF communications officer Alva White reported
the baby's birth in a series of tweets on Monday
from the Aquarius - a search and rescue vessel
run by the group SOS Mediterranee in
partnership with MSF.
"Just over an hour ago a baby boy was born on
board the Aquarius. Mum, bub, dad and 2 big
brothers are all well," she said.
"The gorgeous little guy was born in
international waters so his nationality is still
under discussion."
Ms White told the BBC that such events were
rare on rescue ships, although another baby was
born on the Aquarius in May to a woman from
Cameroon.
She said that the 392 people now on board the
Aquarius included seven pregnant women.
Mrs Oqunbor said she had been "very stressed"
on the rubber boat and had been having
contractions for three days.
MSF midwife Jonquil Nicholl, who delivered the
baby, said: "I am filled with horror at the
thought of what would have happened if this
baby had arrived 24 hours earlier - in that
unseaworthy rubber boat, with fuel on the
bottom where the women sit, crammed in with
no space to move, at the mercy of the sea.
"And 48 hours previously they were waiting on a
beach in Libya not knowing what was ahead of
them."
