Heavy toll after two shipwrecks of migrant boats in Tunisia

Twenty-seven migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died or were missing after two shipwrecks on Friday and Saturday off the coast of Tunisia, a spokesman for the court in Sfax, in the center-east of the country, told AFP.

These are at least the sixth and seventh shipwrecks since the beginning of March, according to an AFP count, and these accidents off the Tunisian coast have left at least a hundred dead or missing.

According to testimonies collected by the justice system which opened an investigation, 37 migrants had “left the coast when their boat sank on Friday afternoon” and only 17 could be saved, said spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi.