SOS Méditerranée rescues 98 migrants off Libya

Text by: RFI Follow

The humanitarian ship Ocean Viking rescued 98 people fleeing Libya on Tuesday evening during a second rescue operation on the same day, the NGO, SOS Mediterranean announced on Wednesday.

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In total, the Ocean Viking came to the rescue this Tuesday to 182 people: 84 in the early morning, including 21 unaccompanied minors from Bangladesh, Morocco and Somalia, and 98 at the end of the day aboard a boat tires in " degraded " weather conditions, according to SOS Méditerranée, which charters the Ocean Viking in partnership with Médecins sans frontières .

Among the latter survivors, notably from Nigeria, some of whom are from the Biafra region, West Africa or Sudan, are a woman and 15 minors, 14 of whom are unaccompanied.

A " deeply worrying " situation in Libya

Since the summer of 2018, succeeding Italy which previously assumed this role, the Libyan coast guards are responsible by Europe for coordinating rescues in a vast "search and rescue zone" beyond their territorial waters. A mission that Libya, at war, is unable to carry out, denounces SOS Mediterranean.

T he situation is " deeply worrying " in Libya , plunged into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with multiple violations of the cease-fire that came into effect in January and of the arms embargo, according to l 'UN.

On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNA) announced the suspension of its participation in the work of a joint military commission in Geneva, under the aegis of the UN, following violations repeated of the truce.

2019: 1283 known deaths in the Mediterranean

The strongman of eastern Libya, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has been waging an offensive against Tripoli since April 2019, where the UN-recognized GNA sits. The clashes have killed more than 1,000 people while 140,000 have been displaced, according to the UN.

In 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded 1,283 known deaths in the Mediterranean, the central route between North Africa and Italy being the deadliest. At least 19,164 migrants have perished in the waves in the past five years.

(with AFP)

► Read also: Rescue of migrants at sea: the difficulties of NGOs

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