at least four dead and three missing after shipwreck

New tragedy off Tunisia. Four people have died and three are missing after another shipwreck occurred on Saturday (April 8) off the Tunisian coast, announced Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the court in Sfax, the country’s second city where almost all interceptions and rescues took place. taken place since January. “There was a new shipwreck this morning, four bodies were recovered from a beach in Sfax and three other people are missing while 36 were rescued”he told AFP.

According to testimonies collected by the justice system which opened an investigation, these migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were “left the coast when their boat sank on Friday afternoon”said Faouzi Masmoudi.

Figures multiplied by five compared to 2022

On Friday, the National Guard announced that it had rescued or intercepted “14,406 people including 13,138 from sub-Saharan Africa, the rest being Tunisians”over the first three months of the year, i.e. more than five times the number recorded for the same period of 2022. The figures for 2023 are “up very sharply because there are many more departures”had then specified to AFP Houssem Jebabli, spokesperson for the national guard.

This is at least the sixth shipwreck since the beginning of March, according to an AFP count, and these accidents off the Tunisian coast have left at least a hundred dead or missing.

Tunisia, some portions of the coastline of which are less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, very regularly records attempts by migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan African countries, to leave for Italy. The departures intensified after a violent speech on February 21 by Tunisian President Kais Saied slamming illegal immigration.