Gambia goalkeeper believed dead crossing Mediterranean

DAKAR, Senegal – The Gambia soccer federation says it believes that women’s national team goalkeeper Fatim Jawara may have died while trying to cross from Libya to Europe on a boat.

Federation spokesman Bakary B. Baldeh says the information they have indicates that Jawara, who was 19 according to FIFA records, died in Libyan waters last month. He was unable to give more details other than to say “she must have been buried there (in Libya).”

Jawara was a member of the Gambia team that played at the under-17 World Cup in Azerbaijan in 2012. She played for the senior national team this year.

The U.N. refugee agency estimated at the end of last month that at least 3,740 migrants and refugees have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.