An 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone was rescued after spending three days at sea, following a shipwreck off the coast of Italy’s Lampedusa island. She was the sole survivor of the tragedy, according to Germany’s rescue charity, CompassCollective.
The charity reported that its crew, while responding to another emergency, heard cries for help around 3 a.m. The girl was found wearing a life jacket and clinging to two tire tubes in the water.
She recounted that she had departed from Sfax, Tunisia, aboard a metal boat carrying 45 passengers, which sank during a storm.
After being rescued, the girl was taken to Lampedusa, a frequent arrival point for migrants due to its proximity to North Africa. Medical staff attended to her before she was transferred to a migrant holding center, where Italian Red Cross personnel and volunteers are currently caring for her.
The Central Mediterranean migration route, spanning Tunisia, Libya, Italy, and Malta, remains one of the world’s most perilous. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports over 24,300 migrant deaths or disappearances along this route since 2014.
In a related development, NGO Mediterranea expressed grave concern over the disappearance of three migrant boats on the Tunisia-Italy route in recent weeks. The organization has called on authorities to initiate search-and-rescue operations to locate any possible survivors.
