TUNISIA: At least 27 migrants, including women and children, died after two boats capsized off central Tunisia, and 83 people were rescued, a civil defense official said. AFP on Thursday.
The rescued and dead passengers, who were found off the Kerkennah Islands off central Tunisia, were intended to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries, said the head of Civil Defense in the city of Sfax, Zied Sdiri.
According to the Tunisian National Guard, which oversees the coast guard, searches were still underway for other possible missing passengers.
Tunisia is a key departure point for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe with Italy, whose island of Lampedusa is just 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Tunisia, often their first port of call.
Every year, tens of thousands of people attempt to cross the dangerous Mediterranean, where there have recently been a series of shipwrecks, the dangers of which are exacerbated by bad weather.
On December 18, at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off the city of Sfax, and five others went missing.
Previously, on December 12, the coast guard rescued 27 African migrants near Jebeniana, north of Sfax, but 15 were reported dead or missing.
Since the beginning of the year, the Tunisian human rights group FTDES has counted “between 600 and 700” migrants dead or missing in shipwrecks off Tunisia.
More than 1,300 migrants died or disappeared in 2023.
