Twenty-seven migrants, including women and children, died when two boats sank off the coast of central Tunisia, and 83 people were rescued, a civil protection official said. AFP THURSDAY.
The rescued and dead passengers found off the Kerkennah Islands in central Tunisia were aiming to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries, said Zied Sdiri, head of civil protection in the city of Sfax.
According to the Tunisian National Guard, which oversees the coast guard, searches were still underway for other passengers who may have gone missing.
Tunisia is a key departure point for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe with Italy, whose island of Lampedusa is just 150 kilometers from Tunisia, often their first port of call.
Every year, tens of thousands of people attempt the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean, which has been the scene of a series of recent shipwrecks, with dangers exacerbated by bad weather.
On December 18, at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off the city of Sfax, with five others missing.
Earlier on December 12, the coast guard rescued 27 African migrants near Jebeniana, north of Sfax, but 15 of them were reported dead or missing.
Since the start of the year, the Tunisian human rights association FTDES has counted “between 600 and 700” migrants killed or missing in shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia. More than 1,300 migrants died or disappeared in 2023.
