Survivors have reported that 41 people
died in the latest in a long series of shipwrecks in the Strait
of Sicily, sources said Wednesday.
The four survivors, three men and a woman, were saved by a Bulk
Carrier, the Rimona, and then transferred to a Coast Guard
vessel that took them to the Italian island of Lampedusa on
Wednesday.
They said three children were among the victims of the disaster.
Neither the Rimona nor the Coast Guard boat came across any of
the victim's bodies.
The survivors, who come from Ivory Coast and Guinea, are thought
to have been in the water for more than a day before being
rescued.
The boat, which sank, departed from Sfax in Tunisia.
There has been a big rise in the number of people attempting the
crossing from North Africa to Italy this year.
According to IOM data, over 2,000 people have died or gone
missing in the Mediterranean so far in 2023, most on the Central
Mediterranean route.
Around 30 people are missing feared dead after two shipwrecks at
the weekend off Lampedusa, which is Italy's southernmost island
and often the destination boats carrying migrants and refugees
from North Africa head for.
Photo: a file photo of a Coast Guard boat with rescued migrants.
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