Tripoli: Around 100 Sudanese refugees are dead or missing after two disasters of separate boats on the coast of Libya last weekend, and it is feared that the toll will rise, UN Wednesday said on Wednesday. UN Agencies.
A ship overturned on Saturday and another burned on Sunday, both in front of the Eastern Port City of Tobruk, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IIM).
The first boat was to take 74 people, “mostly Sudanese refugees,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in his X Libya account, of which “only 13 people survived and the dozens remain missing” of Saturday’s shipwreck.
An IIM spokesman told him before AFP The “tragic incident on Sunday took place when a rubber boat that transported 75 Sudanese refugees caught fire” on the road to Greece, adding: “At least 50 lives were lost.”
The ACNUR and the IIM spokesman did not immediately provide details of the ages or the genre of those who are aboard the ships.
“The IOM provided immediate medical attention to the 24 survivors,” added the spokesman, he added, without clarifying whether one last person was still in Sunday’s accident.
Libya is a key transit country for thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe for sea every year.
At least 456 people died and 420 were reported as missing along the Central Mediterranean route between January 1 and September 13, according to the IOM.
Libyan authorities have intercepted and returned 17,402 migrants to Libya, including 1,516 women and 586 children.
The war in neighboring Sudan between the army and the paramilitaries has pushed more than 140,000 refugees to Libya in the last two years, almost doubleing the number of Sudanese refugees in the country.
Many brave conditions close to slavery in Libya, migrants have told AFP, while others try the dangerous sea crossing in an attempt to reach Europe.
The IOM considers the crossing of the central Mediterranean one of the most mortal migrant routes in the world.
In 2024, 2,573 people tried to arrive in Europe died in the Mediterranean Sea, he said.
Libya is still full of division and instability after years of disturbances after the uprising backed by NATO who knocked down the leader of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
It remains divided between the government not recognized in the West and its oriental rival, backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
Smuggers and people traffickers have taken advantage of instability, which leads to human rights violations, including extortion and slavery, according to rights groups.
