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Death Toll Rises as Rescue Charity Spots Another Body in Sea off Libya

Handout image shows Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) teams retriving dead bodies of migrants in body bags from the Mediterranean sea June 7, 2024. MSF/Frederic Seguin/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Handout image shows Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) teams retriving dead bodies of migrants in body bags from the Mediterranean sea June 7, 2024. MSF/Frederic Seguin/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
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Death Toll Rises as Rescue Charity Spots Another Body in Sea off Libya

Handout image shows Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) teams retriving dead bodies of migrants in body bags from the Mediterranean sea June 7, 2024. MSF/Frederic Seguin/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Handout image shows Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) teams retriving dead bodies of migrants in body bags from the Mediterranean sea June 7, 2024. MSF/Frederic Seguin/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights

Another body was spotted off the coast of Libya on Saturday, a day after a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) rescue ship recovered the bodies of 11 migrants in the same area of the Mediterranean Sea and said it had saved more than 160 people from boats.

Non-profit organization Sea Watch said on social media platform X that its plane had spotted the corpse on Saturday.

"Yesterday our aircraft crew sighted 11 bodies, and so far one more has been discovered on today's flight. The flight and the search continue," the Germany-based non-profit group said, Reuters reported.

The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.

MSF said its Geo Barents search and rescue vessel picked up 146 migrants in two operations and then found a further 20 in a separate boat. They also retrieved the bodies of 11 people who were seen by the Sea Watch plane.

"We do not know the precise cause of this tragedy, but we know that people continue to die in a desperate attempt to reach safety. This slaughter must end," MSF said on X.

The 11 bodies should be transferred onto a ship of the Italian coast guard and then disembarked temporarily at the island of Lampedusa, Italian media reported on Saturday.

Italy has urged Tunisia and Libya to do more to stop would-be migrants from putting to sea. It has also clamped down on the operations of rescue ships, saying they encourage people to head to Europe - something the charities deny.

Underscoring the restrictions, Italy on Friday told Geo Barents to take its latest group of migrants to the northern port of Genova, more than 650 nautical miles away and far from the more convenient ports in nearby Sicily.

"This will significantly delay assistance for the ... survivors who endured a lot already," MSF said.

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Arab World

Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.