ROME: Seven people were rescued and 21 people were missing at sea after a migrant shipwreck off the island of Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard said on Wednesday.
The survivors, all male Syrian nationals, were picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometers) southwest of Lampedusa, a statement said.
They told rescuers they had set off on Sunday from Libya, and that 21 of the 28 people they had aboard, including three children, had fallen into the sea during rough weather.
The coast guard said it had taken the survivors to Lampedusa and had deployed naval and air units to look for the missing people.
The Italian office of UN refugee agency UNHCR told Reuters that Sudanese people were also on the boat, which is believed to have departed from the port of Sabratha, west of Tripoli.
The head of UNHCR Italy, Chiara Cardoletti, wrote on X that the survivors were in “critical” condition and had lost relatives at sea.
The boat “capsized repeatedly, leaving people clinging to the side of the boat as their family members drowned around them,” Nicola Dell’Arciprete, UNICEF country coordinator for Italy, said in a statement.
The central Mediterranean is among the world’s deadliest migration routes. According to the UN migration agency (IOM), more than 2,500 migrants died or went missing attempting the crossing last year, and 1,047 this year, as of Tuesday.
The latest figures from the Italian interior ministry recorded that just over 43,000 migrants had reached Italy so far in 2024, well down from previous years.
Seven rescued, 21 missing after migrant shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa
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Seven rescued, 21 missing after migrant shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa
- The survivors, all male Syrian nationals, were picked up from a semi-sunken boat about 18.5 kilometers southwest of Lampedusa
- The Italian office of UN refugee agency UNHCR told Reuters that Sudanese people were also on the boat
Minibus crash kills 12 in northeastern Afghanistan
- “Due to severe road damage, it veered off course and fell into a valley,” a police spokesperson said
- “The victims of this incident include men, women, and children”
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan: At least 12 people were killed and three seriously injured when a minibus overturned and crashed into a valley in northeastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Saturday.
The bus was traveling along a road in Badakhshan province toward the provincial capital, Faizabad, but “due to severe road damage, it veered off course and fell into a valley,” a provincial police spokesperson said.
“The victims of this incident include men, women, and children... and the injured are in severe condition,” the spokesperson said.
Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving and a lack of regulation.
A bus carrying migrants returning from Iran crashed in western Herat province in August last year, killing 78 people, including more than a dozen children.
The bus collided with a motorcycle and a truck, according to authorities, making it one of the deadliest crashes in years.
Another 25 people were killed in late August when a bus overturned on a highway near the capital, Kabul, “due to the driver’s negligence,” officials said.
