About 800 Migrants Drowned off Tunisia's Coast This Year

Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
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About 800 Migrants Drowned off Tunisia's Coast This Year

Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)
Migrants gather near Ras Ajdir to demand that authorities send medicine and food aid. (EPA)

About 800 migrants have drowned off Tunisia's coast this year as they tried to reach Europe by boat, National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Jebabli said that 789 bodies of migrants were recovered from the sea, including 102 Tunisians, other foreigners, and unidentified people.

He said that between January 1 to June 20, 34,290 migrants were intercepted and rescued, including 30,587 foreigners, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 9,217 people who were intercepted or retrieved during the same period in 2022.

The Coast Guard carried out 1,310 operations in the first six months, more than double the number of missions last year.

Tunisia, with some coasts less than 150 km from Italy's Lampedusa Island, has become a significant gateway for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers, often from sub-Saharan Africa.

Italian authorities say more than 80,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean and reached the Italian coast since the beginning of the year, compared to 33,000 last year during the same period, most of them from the Tunisian and Libyan coasts.

Tunisian Interior Minister Kamal Feki said Wednesday that the Tunisian Coast Guard had recovered 901 bodies by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean Sea.

Tunisia has replaced Libya as the main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East searching for a better life in Europe.

Feki told the Parliament that among the 901 bodies found, 36 were Tunisians, and 267 were foreign immigrants, while the identity of the rest is unknown.

Most of the boats carrying migrants depart from Sfax. Thousands of migrants without identity papers flocked to the coastal city, especially in the past few months, to travel to Europe in boats run by smugglers, leading to an unprecedented migration crisis in Tunisia.

Official data showed that about 75,065 migrants arrived in Italy by boat until July 14, compared to 31,920 in the same period last year. More than half of them left from Tunisia.

Last week, the European Union and Tunisia signed a memorandum of understanding for a "strategic and comprehensive partnership" on illegal migration, economic development, and renewable energy.

Hundreds of African migrants, including pregnant women and children, are still abandoned in Ras Ajdir between Libya and Tunisia after Tunisian authorities sent them there, according to testimonies collected by AFP.

About 140 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa said they had been in the area without water or food for three weeks and set up a transit camp 30 meters from the Libyan Ras Ajdir border checkpoint.

Following clashes that killed a Tunisian citizen earlier in July, dozens of African migrants were expelled from Sfax and transferred to border areas with Libya and Algeria.

Over the past ten days, Libyan border guards have taken in hundreds of migrants wandering in the desert south of Ras Ajdir, where at least five bodies were found.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tunisian police expelled up to 1,200 African migrants in July to remote desert areas along Tunisia's borders with Libya and Algeria.

On July 10, the Tunisian Red Crescent relocated 600 on the Libyan side and hundreds on the Algerian side to shelters.



Israeli Airstrikes Hit Yemen's Capital and Port City after Houthi Attack Targets Israel

A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israeli Airstrikes Hit Yemen's Capital and Port City after Houthi Attack Targets Israel

A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
A Houthi supporter carries a mock missile during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 13 December 2024. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

A series of intense Israeli airstrikes shook Yemen's Houthi-held capital and a port city early Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.
Thursday’s strikes risk further escalating conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose attacks on the Red Sea corridor have drastically impacted global shipping. The militants have so far avoided the same level of intense military strikes that have targeted the Palestinian Hamas militant group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, fellow members of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.”
The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah said that some of the strikes targeted power stations in the capital, as well as the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea. The channel, citing its correspondent in the port city of Hodeida, said at least seven people had been killed at the nearby port of Salif, while another two had been killed at the Ras Isa oil terminal.
Others suffered wounds at the Hodeida port as well, it said.
An Israeli military statement offered no specifics on the targets hit, nor any damage assessment.
“The targets struck by the (Israeli military) were used by the Houthi forces for military purposes,” the statement said. “The strikes degrade the Houthi terrorist regime, preventing it from exploiting the targets for military and terrorist purposes, including the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the region.”
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the strikes hit energy and port infrastructure, which he alleged the militants “have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military action.”
“Israel will not hesitate to act in order to defend itself and its citizens from the Houthi attacks,” Hagari said.
Houthi-held Hodeida, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Sanaa, has been key for food shipments into Yemen as its decades long war has gone on. There's also longstanding suspicion that weapons from Iran have been transferred through the port.
The strikes happened just after the Israeli military said its air force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it entered the country’s territory.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling debris from the interception,” the Israeli military said. Sirens sounded near Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas, and a large explosion was heard overhead at the time. The Houthis did not immediately claim the missile attack, but said an important military statement would be issued in the coming hours, following a pattern of how they claim their assaults.
Israel previously struck Hodeida and its oil infrastructure in July after a Houthi drone attack killed one person and wounded 10 in Tel Aviv. In September, Israel struck Hodeida again, killing at least four people after a militant missile targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving back to the country.
American forces have also launched a series of strikes on the Houthis over nearly a year due to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. On Monday, the US military's Central Command said it hit “a key command-and-control facility" operated by the Houthis in Sanaa, later identified as the al-Ardi complex once home to the government's Defense Ministry.
But Israel appears to have carried out Thursday's strikes alone. A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the attacks, said America had no part in them.
The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023 after Hamas' surprise attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel's grinding offensive in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, local health officials say.
The Houthis have seized one vessel and sunk two in a campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by separate US- and European-led coalitions in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included Western military vessels.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
But the Houthis are still standing even as Israel's campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah has decimated those militant groups. Meanwhile, Israel and Iran have exchanged direct fire while the government of Syria, an enemy of Israel since its founding in 1948, collapsed in the face of a rebel advance as the region’s wars have upended Iran’s network of allied proxy groups.