Several dead, scores missing after migrant boats sink off Tunisia

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa sit in a makeshift boat off the coast of Tunisia's city of Sfax on October 4, 2022. © Fethi Belaid, AFP

At least five African migrants died and another 33 were missing after four boats sank off the coast of Tunisia on Wednesday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, an official of a local rights group said.

Romadan Ben Omar, the official in the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, said that coast guard rescued five migrants who had been on board boats that sank off the coast of the southern city of Sfax, and that they were in a bad psychological condition.