Around 70 migrants are presumed dead after going missing off the Libyan coast since late February, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday. The United Nations agency said 22 migrants had been found dead after boats capsized on February 27 and March 12, with 47 still missing. In the latter tragedy, a boat reportedly carrying 25 migrants capsized off the Libyan port city of Tobruk, bringing the total number of migrants reported dead or missing in the central Mediterranean to 215 so far this year, it said.
“I am appalled by the continuing loss of life in the Central Mediterranean and the lack of action to tackle this ongoing tragedy,” said Federico Soda, IOM’s Libya chief. He called for “concrete action to reduce loss of life … through dedicated and proactive search and rescue and a safe disembarkation mechanism”. “Each missing migrant report represents a grieving family searching for answers about their loved ones,” he added.
Libya has long been a springboard for migrants, often from countries ravaged by war and poverty, to make desperate bids to reach a better life in Europe. Many end up drowning in the attempt, making the central Mediterranean route the world’s deadliest migration corridor. More than 123,000 migrants landed in Italy from Libya and neighbouring Tunisia in 2021, up from around 95,000 the previous year, according to the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR. Nearly 2,000 migrants went missing or drowned last year in the Mediterranean, compared to 1,401 in 2020, it says.
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Transcript: The Sahel is now clearly the next big event in Africa's geopolitics. After the complete destruction of Libya, the same foreign powers that paid for the killing of a nation are now shifting their attention to the Sahel, establishing the bases of another...
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By Arezki Daoud: Since 2011, Libya has been engulfed in a bloody civil war after the death of Muammar Gaddafi. Over the years, it was easy to identify the problem: too many foreign regional players and global powers meddling in Libya’s affairs, explicitly or...
The departure of the French and American troops from Niger created an opportunity for the Russians to replace them. The Russians’ objective is to clearly counter the west and reduce its influence in the Sahel, West Africa and elsewhere on the African continent. The...
By Arezki Daoud: France is experiencing an unprecedented backlash in the Sahel and in West Africa. Disastrous post-colonial policies forced the people of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to expel French troops and diplomats, reducing Paris' entrenched but...
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