41 dead after latest shipwreck off Lampedusa

ROME. KAZINFORM 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, ANSA reports.

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.