29 dead, 11 rescued off Tunisia coast as migrant boats sink

Boat sinkings off the coast of Tunisia over the weekend killed at least 29 people who were trying to make the perilous crossing across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, the Tunisian National Guard said on Sunday. The victims were mainly from countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tunisian fishermen recovered 19 bodies, said National Guard spokesman Houssameddine Jebabli. The Coast Guard also recovered eight bodies on Saturday night and rescued 11 survivors who had been aboard a boat that went down, he said.

Two other bodies were recovered in waters off the Tunisian port of Sfax, he said.

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It wasn't immediately clear how many more people might have been aboard the boats that sank.

A Tunisian NGO that tracks migration issues said five boats are believed to have foundered in the past two days off Sfax and that 67 people remain unaccounted for.

People fleeing conflict or poverty routinely take boats from Tunisian shores toward Europe, even though the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Many are from sub-Saharan Africa.