"This is a training mission in response to a request from Niger, not a combat mission," said Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti, elaborating on comments Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni made on the issue last month.
"We are going to Niger following a request from the local government received in early December concerning an Italian contribution to do what we normally do in these countries, such as Libya, for example. That is, reinforce instruments of territorial and border control and reinforce local police forces," Gentiloni said in December.
Gentiloni said then that Niger is "the main transit country" for tens of thousands of people arriving in Libya, the launchpad for many Europe-bound African migrants, from where they attempt dangerous sea crossings to Europe.
Last year, some 115,000 landed in Italy, a figure down 32 percent year on year, taking arrivals since 2014 to around 600,000.
Gentiloni insisted last month his country could "hold its head high" over its treatment of migrants, after rights group Amnesty International accused Rome and other EU governments of being "knowingly complicit" in abuses of migrants in Libya.
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1,400 migrants brought to Italy, two bodies recovered after rescue at sea
The Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms said it had come to the aid of an overcrowded boat carrying some 400 people in extremely dangerous conditions, and one of the dead was a child.
Vessels belonging to the Italian police and coast guard, the EU's anti-trafficking mission Sophia and Proactiva launched 11 separate rescue operations to save people from seven dinghies, three small wooden boats and one large one.
Proactiva said there were 175 women and 75 children among those it rescued, adding that they had spent "too many hours crammed into two levels in terrible conditions. (The boat) could sink at any moment".
Those rescued had been "breathing death," it added. "An unbearable sight. A dead child, and there may be more. More innocent corpses for the death toll of shame," it said on Twitter in Spanish.
Nearly 1,000 people have been rescued and brought to Italy since the start of the year, down 60 percent on arrivals registered in the same period last year, according to Italy's interior ministry.
The numbers being plucked from rickety boats has dropped significantly since Italy forged a controversial Brussels-backed deal last summer with forces in Libya to block migrants from setting out for Europe.
The UN's refugee agency said 173 people have died attempting the crossing from North Africa in 2018.
