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Tunisia Recovers Bodies of 13 Migrants, Including Six Children

A file photo shows Tunisia’s coastguards retrieve the bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa after their boat capsized, at the port of Sfax in central Tunisia on December 24, 2020. (AFP)
A file photo shows Tunisia’s coastguards retrieve the bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa after their boat capsized, at the port of Sfax in central Tunisia on December 24, 2020. (AFP)
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Tunisia Recovers Bodies of 13 Migrants, Including Six Children

A file photo shows Tunisia’s coastguards retrieve the bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa after their boat capsized, at the port of Sfax in central Tunisia on December 24, 2020. (AFP)
A file photo shows Tunisia’s coastguards retrieve the bodies of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa after their boat capsized, at the port of Sfax in central Tunisia on December 24, 2020. (AFP)

Tunisian authorities recovered the bodies of 13 migrants, including six women and six children, after their boats capsized trying to make the dangerous sea crossing to Italy, a court official said Saturday.

The migrants were all from sub-Saharan Africa and had set off in two boats, said Mourad Turki, spokesman for the court in the Mediterranean port city of Sfax.

Rescuers pulled 37 migrants from the water on Friday and Saturday but a dozen more remained unaccounted for, he told AFP.

Tunisia and neighboring Libya are key departure points for migrants seeking to reach European shores, often in vessels that are barely seaworthy.

The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR has said that around 1,300 migrants drowned or went missing in the central Mediterranean in 2021, making it the world’s deadliest migration route.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 18,000 migrants have died or disappeared while attempting to make the crossing since 2014.

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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.