A boat carrying 33 Sudanese migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near Tobruk, an eastern Libyan town, leaving at least 17 people dead and nine others missing, U.N. officials said Thursday. UNHCR said only seven people survived the shipwreck. The U.N. said it was unclear when the boat capsized.
The U.N. International Organization for Migration said the survivors had been stranded at sea for several days after the accident, and that some of the migrants died of hunger and thirst. IOM said the boat had departed Tobruk and was heading to Greece when it capsized about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of the city.
Rescue efforts, according to IOM, were carried out by the navy, the Libyan coast guard and the Libyan Red Crescent. The Libyan Red Crescent posted photos Thursday showing rescue workers moving several bodies in black bags, and the U.N. said the medical conditions of the survivors were not immediately known.
Libya has served as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East since the country descended into chaos after a 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Earlier this month, more than 80 migrants went missing after a boat that departed a Libyan coastal town capsized in the central Mediterranean.
The IOM has also warned that the Mediterranean crossing has grown deadlier this year. In early April, IOM said 2026 had seen the deadliest start to a year for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea since 2014, adding that 765 people had been reported dead in the central Mediterranean during that period—about a 150% increase compared with the same period last year. IOM Director General Amy Pope told The Associated Press earlier this month that the agency was seeing more migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan on boats in the Mediterranean.