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Migrant Boat Tragedy Off Algerian Coast

Migrants are seen on board a drifting overcrowded wooden boat, during a rescue operation by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, north of the Libyan city of Sabratha in central Mediterranean Sea, March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
Migrants are seen on board a drifting overcrowded wooden boat, during a rescue operation by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, north of the Libyan city of Sabratha in central Mediterranean Sea, March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
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Migrant Boat Tragedy Off Algerian Coast

Migrants are seen on board a drifting overcrowded wooden boat, during a rescue operation by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, north of the Libyan city of Sabratha in central Mediterranean Sea, March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
Migrants are seen on board a drifting overcrowded wooden boat, during a rescue operation by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, north of the Libyan city of Sabratha in central Mediterranean Sea, March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Twenty migrants were missing Friday a day after the boat they were travelling in caught fire off the Algerian coast, the APS national news agency said.

APS, quoting an unnamed security source, said the migrants were among 29 people aboard the ill-fated boat.

A Liberian-flagged vessel assisted the boat and rescued nine people, including two newborn babies, the agency said, adding that some had suffered burns.

The survivors are in "stable condition", APS said quoting Mohammed Sayeb, the director of the Tenes hospital west of Algiers where they were taken for treatment. 

Online news website Al-Shuruq quoted a survivor as saying the fire broke out shortly after the migrants set off at midnight Wednesday from the coastal city of Oran in northwest Algeria.

According to the report the passengers -- all of them Algerians -- jumped into the sea to escape the blaze.

It was not clear what started the fire.

A spokesman for the coast guard of Libya, Algeria's neighbor, said Thursday about 15,000 migrants have been intercepted trying to reach Italy by sea this year, giving a number for the first time.

The coast guard has stepped up patrols after receiving new boats from Italy as part of efforts by the right-wing government there to stop migrants reaching Italian shores from Africa.

The UN Libya mission (UNSMIL) gave a much higher estimate, saying in a 61-page report that the coast guard had intercepted or rescued 29,000 migrants in the first nine months of the year.

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MSF Suspends Operations at Key Hospital in Sudan's Capital

FILE - South Sudanese people sit outside a nutrition clinic at a transit center in Renk, South Sudan, on May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
FILE - South Sudanese people sit outside a nutrition clinic at a transit center in Renk, South Sudan, on May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
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MSF Suspends Operations at Key Hospital in Sudan's Capital

FILE - South Sudanese people sit outside a nutrition clinic at a transit center in Renk, South Sudan, on May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
FILE - South Sudanese people sit outside a nutrition clinic at a transit center in Renk, South Sudan, on May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)

Medical aid agency MSF said on Friday it has been forced to suspend its activities at one of the few remaining hospitals in southern Khartoum due to repeated attacks, cutting off yet another lifeline for those who remain in the Sudanese capital.
War has been raging in Sudan since April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, triggering the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.
The hospital, which lies in territory controlled by the RSF, helped treat the victims of frequent airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces, as well as hundreds of malnourished women and children in an area where two neighborhoods have been judged at risk of famine, reported Reuters.
"In the 20 months MSF teams have worked alongside hospital staff and volunteers, Bashair Hospital has experienced repeated incidents of armed fighters entering the hospital with weapons and threatening medical staff, often demanding fighters be treated before other patients," MSF said in a statement.
"Despite extensive engagements with all stakeholders, these attacks have continued in recent months. MSF has now taken the very difficult decision to suspend all medical activities in the hospital."
The fighting in Sudan has cut off up to 80% of hospitals in conflict areas, where millions who cannot afford to escape the violence remain. Civilians face frequent air and artillery fire and hunger as supplies are blocked by both warring parties and prices skyrocket.
Medical facilities, including MSF-supported ones that have suspended operations, have frequently come under attack by RSF soldiers demanding treatment or looting supplies. Bashair Hospital has served more than 25,000 people, MSF said, including 9,000 hurt by blasts, gunshot wounds, and other violence.
"Sometimes dozens of people arrived at the hospital at the same time after shelling or airstrikes on residential areas and markets," MSF said in the statement, citing an incident on Sunday where an airstrike one kilometer away drove 50 people to the emergency room, 12 of them already dead.