Updated

The head of the Red Crescent in Libya says 13 African migrants died of suffocation inside a shipping container while being transported over four days between two Libyan towns.

Osama al-Fadly, the head of the Red Crescent in Libya, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the deceased were among 69 migrants, many from Mali, who were packed into the container.

The locked container was then transported from the central town of Bani Walid to Khoms in western Libya, from where the migrants were to be taken across the Mediterranean.

Instead, the traffickers unloaded the human cargo near an anti-trafficking force in Khoms on Tuesday.

Al-Fadly says many of the survivors had their limbs broken when they were thrown out of the container. A five-year-old girl was among the survivors.