Twenty-seven migrants, including women and children, died after two boats capsized in central Tunisia, a civil defense official told AFP on Thursday, while 83 people were rescued.
Zeid Suderi, head of civil defense in the city of Sfax, said the rescued and dead passengers, who were found on the central Tunisian island of Kirkenes, were aiming to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries.
According to the Tunisian National Guard, which oversees the coast guard, the search is on for other possible missing passengers.
Tunisia is a key point of departure for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe, with Italy, whose island of Lampedusa is just 150km from Tunis, often their first port of call.
Every year, tens of thousands of people try to cross the dangerous Mediterranean Sea, which has seen a series of recent shipwrecks, and the dangers have been exacerbated by bad weather.
On December 18, at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a boat accident near the city of Sfax, while five others are missing.
Earlier on December 12, the coast guard rescued 27 African migrants near Djebiana, north of Sfax, but 15 were reported dead or missing.
Since the beginning of the year, Tunisian human rights group FTDES has reported “between 600 and 700” migrants killed or missing in shipwrecks near Tunis. In 2023, more than 1,300 migrants died or went missing.