Deadly Migrant Boat Sinking off Libya Claims 5 Lives, Including Moroccan Mother and Child

The boat was carrying nearly 90 migrants of various nationalities, says General Kacem, spokesman for the Libyan navy, based on the testimonies of the survivors. The bodies of the five migrants, those of the Moroccan woman and child, as well as three others of Moroccan, Somali and Sudanese nationality, were recovered. Search operations at sea are ongoing.

Many shipwrecks have occurred off the coast of Libya in recent years. A few days earlier, 65 other migrants, mostly Sudanese, had been rescued off the city of Khoms, 120 km east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Libya remains an important transit point for migrants seeking social stability or trying to reach Europe, despite the unstable situation in the country since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.