At least 42 migrants are missing and presumed dead after their boat capsized off Libya’s coast last week, the United Nations’ migration agency reported on Wednesday.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the vessel’s engine failed amid rough seas at dawn on 3 November, just hours after departing from the coastal city of Zuwara in northwestern Libya.
Seven survivors were discovered after being stranded for six days when Libyan authorities launched a rescue operation near the al-Buri Oil Field on Saturday.
The ill-fated rubber boat was carrying 47 men and two women. Among those missing are 29 Sudanese nationals, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon, and two from Nigeria, the IOM said.
The IOM said it has provided urgent medical care, water and food to the survivors, who have been taken to Tripoli where they are said to be in a stable condition after suffering sunburn and skin irritation from seawater.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country has plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Last month, a migrant wooden boat that departed al-Zawiya in northwestern Libya capsized due to high waves, with the loss of 18 people, according to IOM. Another 64 people from Sudan, Bangladesh and Pakistan survived.
The latest shipwreck adds to the rising death toll in the Central Mediterranean, where more than 1,000 people have died since the beginning of 2025, including over 500 lost off the coast of Libya, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
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