5 dead, dozens believed missing after 3 boats carrying migrants sinks off Tunisian coast

At least five Africans were dead and dozens believed missing after three boats attempting to carry migrants across.

The Mediterranean Sea sank in recent days off the coast of the Tunisian city of Sfax, the Tunisian coast guard said Thursday.

Bodies of five people, including one child, were recovered in the area in recent days, Sfax Prosecutor Faouzi Masmoudi said.

Masmoudi told The Associated Press that navy units had rescued 73 migrants after the three shipwrecks, but survivors’ accounts indicated as many as 47 others were missing. Six of the missing were reported to be children.

Masmoudi said the boats were made of iron and took on water as soon as they reached the open sea.

Most of the growing number of attempts to migrate to Italy by boat from Tunisia leave from the area around Sfax, a port on Tunisia’s central coast.

Masmoudi said the number of victims buried in Sfax’s cemeteries since January has reached almost 500, a significant increase from the previous two years. In 2022, 355 burials were recorded and 226 in 2021, he said.