Migrant shipwreck: Nigerian orphan baby starts new life in Italy

A nine-month-old Nigerian girl who survived a shipwreck is going to an Italian foster family after her story triggered many adoption offers.

The BBC reported that the baby's mother, who was pregnant with a second child, died of petrol burns when an overcrowded migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean. Five bodies were found at the scene.

Dr Pietro Bartolo gave the baby first aid on the island of Lampedusa.

Favour and dozens of other survivors will be transferred by boat from Lampedusa to Sicily. She will be taken in by a child care centre before being looked after by an Italian family.

Dr Bartolo earlier told Italian media that he himself had asked to adopt Favour. But as a 60-year-old with three other children he admitted that he was unlikely to get custody.

'I want to keep her with me forever,' he said. 'She is a marvellous creature, she hugged me and didn't shed a tear.'

Dr Bartolo said his clinic on Lampedusa had been bombarded with phone calls from Italians touched by Favour's story and offering to adopt her.

Favour was given warm clothes, milk, biscuits and ointment at the clinic.

She had come ashore in the arms of a young Nigerian woman, who was one of many survivors with serious burns, apparently caused by a petrol leak from the boat's engine.