Overview

• Volunteers from the German NGO RESQSHIP evacuated about 65 people from a partially deflated rubber boat in international waters north of Libya after an alert from the Alarm Phone network.
• During the night operation in rough seas, rescuers discovered the girls’ bodies in water and fuel as they transferred passengers to the NGO vessel.
• The mother and a brother survived, the bodies were taken to Lampedusa, and several injured people required urgent medical evacuation by the Italian Coast Guard.
• Survivors said the boat had departed Zuwara in western Libya hours earlier, with those rescued including pregnant women and children from Sudan, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.
• SOS Humanity cited UN findings that the Libyan Coast Guard and allied actors have committed serious abuses, strengthening NGO demands for safer legal routes.