41 migrants lost their lives in a new shipwreck of a boat off Lampedusa (Italy) reported Wednesday the Italian news agency Ansa. Three men and one woman from Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea survived. They were disembarked by the coastguard on the island of Lampedusa not far from Sicily.
Questioned by the soldiers of the Coast Guard, the castaways explained that they left Sfax in Tunisia at 10 am on Thursday, August 3. On board, there were 45 people including three children, they said. Ansa reports that after six hours of sailing the 6 m metal boat overturned because of the current. Remaining in the water, the four survivors who were wearing life jackets found another empty boat at sea. This boat was then spotted by a plane of the NGO Sea-Watch.
1800 deaths in the Central Mediterranean in 2023
On Sunday, the Italian coast guard reported at least 30 people missing after two boats sank. For their part, Tunisian authorities announced on Monday that they had found eleven dead bodies in a ship near Sfax with 44 missing migrants.
The UN says 1,800 people died in shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean in 2023, more than double the same period in 2022. According to figures from the Italian Interior Ministry, 94,000 migrants have arrived on the shores of the peninsula since the beginning of the year, again more than double last year.