At least 17 migrants died, and nine are missing after their boat broke down and drifted ​for eight days in the Mediterranean Sea, Libya's ‌Red Crescent and Libyan security sources said on Wednesday.

The Red Crescent said in a statement that the volunteers, in cooperation with ​the naval forces and coast guards of the Libyan National Army, rescued seven survivors during recovery operations off Tobruk city in eastern Libya, near the border with Egypt.

Libya ​is a transit route for migrants, many of them from ​sub-Saharan Africa, who risk their lives to flee to Europe across the desert and sea in the hope of escaping conflict and poverty.

The security ​sources said they expected the bodies of the nine missing ​migrants to wash ashore in the next few days.

Pictures posted on ‌the ⁠internet by the Red Crescent showed the volunteers placing the bodies in black plastic bags and loading them into the back of pick-up vehicles.

On Tuesday, the country's attorney general said ​Tripoli Criminal Court sentenced ​four members ⁠of a "criminal gang" in Zuwara, western Libya, to up to 22 years in jail for ​human trafficking, abductions for ransom and torture.

In ​a separate ⁠case, the Public Prosecutor's Office ordered on Monday the arrest of another gang that allegedly sent migrants from Tobruk on a dilapidated boat ⁠that ​capsized, resulting in the death of ​38 Sudanese, Egyptian, and Ethiopian nationals, according to the attorney general.