Boat capsize near Lampedusa: 11-year-old girl rescued

An 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone was found adrift in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, and is thought to be the only survivor of a migrant boat that capsized after departing from Sfax, Tunisia.

According to Katja Tempel, spokesperson for Compass Collective Germany, “She told us that they started four or five days ago in Sfax, in Tunisia, in an iron boat… there were very heavy storms between Lampedusa and Tunisia…the boat capsized three days ago… And for one day, she was in the water and two other people were also somehow in contact with her in the water. But after one day of being in the water, the two people disappeared… She couldn’t reach them with her voice. And so then she said she was in the water for two more days until we found her.”

While responding to a different emergency, rescuers from the non-governmental organization Compass Collective heard a girl urgently calling for assistance.

The unnamed girl, originally from Sierra Leone, shared that she had set out with 44 others from Sfax in Tunisia.

Their boat had gone down, and it is presumed that the rest of the migrants are dead.

Katja noted, “The coincidence of us being there and so near to this girl that her voice could reach us is remarkable.”

Additional sources • Other agencies

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