UN: Over 60 Drown in Migrant Vessel Off Libya

Nigerian migrants await processing during a deportation operation by the Tripoli-based government in the Libyan capital on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
Nigerian migrants await processing during a deportation operation by the Tripoli-based government in the Libyan capital on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
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UN: Over 60 Drown in Migrant Vessel Off Libya

Nigerian migrants await processing during a deportation operation by the Tripoli-based government in the Libyan capital on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)
Nigerian migrants await processing during a deportation operation by the Tripoli-based government in the Libyan capital on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Turkia / AFP)

A boat carrying dozens of Europe-bound migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people — including women and children — dead, the UN migration agency said.
Saturday’s shipwreck was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, where, according to officials, thousands have died.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, citing survivors of the “dramatic shipwreck.”

“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
The country is a major launching point for migrants trying to reach the European shores through the deadly central Mediterranean. More than 2,250 people died on this route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson.
It’s “a dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea,” Di Giacomo wrote on X.



Pope Calls Situation in Gaza 'Shameful'

Palestinians carry the dead body of a child, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinians carry the dead body of a child, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Pope Calls Situation in Gaza 'Shameful'

Palestinians carry the dead body of a child, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinians carry the dead body of a child, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Pope Francis on Thursday stepped up his recent criticisms of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave "very serious and shameful.”

In a yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide, Francis appeared to reference deaths caused by winter cold in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.

"We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians," the text said, according to Reuters.
"We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country's energy network has been hit."

The pope, 88, was present for the address but asked an aide to read it for him as he is recovering from a cold.

The comments were part of an address to Vatican-accredited envoys from some 184 countries that is sometimes called the pope's 'state of the world' speech. The Israeli ambassador to the Holy See was among those present for the event.

Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts.
But he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas, and has suggested
the global community should study whether the offensive constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
An Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff in December for that suggestion.

The pope's text said he condemns anti-Semitism, and called the growth of anti-Semitic groups "a source of deep concern."
Francis also called for an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia, which has killed tens of thousands.