A shipwreck occurred off the Tunisian coast, on the night of Friday July 2 to Saturday July 3. At least 43 people are currently missing, a Tunisian Red Crescent official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday.
“84 migrants were rescued and 43 others disappeared after a boat carrying 127 migrants sank off Zarzis”, a city in south-eastern Tunisia, the director of the Red Crescent branch in Medenine, Mongi Slim, told AFP.
A boat that left Libya at the end of June
The boat had left the coast of Zouara, in the north-west of Libya, “On the night of June 28 to 29”, with the aim of reaching Europe, according to testimonies from survivors gathered by the humanitarian organization.
For its part, the Tunisian defense ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the navy had saved, on the night from Friday to Saturday, “84 illegal immigrants of different nationalities”, citing Bangladesh, Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt and Chad. However, the ministry did not specify the number of missing. The survivors are between 3 and 40 years old, he added.