Rome, Dec 21, (dpa/GNA) – Scores of people drowned in the central Mediterranean off the coast of Libya last weekend, according to tweets sent by United Nations staff on Tuesday.
At least 160 people died, a spokesperson for the Organization for Migration (IOM), Safa Msehli, tweeted on Tuesday. This brings the death toll for the route from Libya to Europe across the central Mediterranean to almost 1,500 people so far this year.
IOM coordinator, Flavio Di Giacomo, tweeted that 102 people were missing off the Libyan coast near the port city of Surman, west of the capital Tripoli, and that 61 bodies had been discovered not far from there near the city of Sabrata.
IOM representatives did not provide further details about the incidents.
According to media reports, multiple wooden boats capsized and sank overnight Saturday and Sunday. Some people were rescued from the water by fishing boats in the area.
People repeatedly board boats, some of them overcrowded, on the coasts of North Africa in order to reach the EU across the Mediterranean. The conditions at sea are very dangerous, particularly during the winter months.
Private aid organizations hoping to save the migrants from drowning operate in the central Mediterranean. At present, several ships, including the Sea-Eye 4, which has some 220 rescued migrants aboard, are waiting to be assigned a safe harbor.
GNA