On January 2 in Tunisia, two ships carrying 110 migrants sank off the coast of the Kerkennah Islands. Twenty-seven bodies were recovered and 83 passengers were rescued.
The disaster struck as two vessels capsized and sank near Kerkennah, with 27 migrants, including women and children, losing their lives. The survivors, all of whom were from sub-Saharan Africa, were rescued by coast guard and civil protection teams. According to authorities, the victims were from various countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Zied Sdiri, regional director of civil protection in Sfax, reported that one of the boats capsized while the other sank approximately three nautical miles from the islands. Among the deceased was a newborn baby, as confirmed by the National Guard, which also stated that 17 women and seven minors were among the survivors. The search for missing individuals is still ongoing.
Fifteen of the rescued migrants were taken to a hospital for treatment. This tragedy comes just days after a series of deadly shipwrecks in December 2024. On December 31, two Tunisian migrants, including a child, lost their lives in a shipwreck off Tunisia’s northern coast, with 17 others rescued. Earlier in December, at least 20 sub-Saharan migrants died in a shipwreck near Sfax on December 18, and five others went missing. On December 12, coast guards rescued 27 migrants but found 15 others dead or missing near Jebeniana, north of Sfax.
