A judicial official reported on Saturday that at least five African migrants were killed and another 10 were missing when a boat capsized off Tunisia as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
20 migrants who had been on the crammed boat that capsized off Louata in the Sfax region on Friday were saved by the coastguard, the official told Reuters.
People leaving the Middle East and Africa’s extreme poverty in search of a better life in Europe frequently depart from the shore of Sfax.
With an upsurge in the number of attempts to cross from Tunisia and Libya to Italy in recent months, hundreds of people have perished off the coast of Tunisia.
According to the rights organization Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, more than 18,000 Tunisians left their country by boat for Europe in 2022 as a result of an unprecedented economic and financial catastrophe.
