Armed vessels linked to the Libyan coast guard opened fire on the humanitarian rescue ship Sea‑Watch 5 on Monday morning, the German non‑governmental organization Sea‑Watch said, in an attack that sent the crew and nearly 90 rescued migrants scrambling for shelter and reignited fears over the safety of rescue missions in the central Mediterranean.
The Sea‑Watch 5 had just completed a rescue of about 90 people from an overcrowded wooden boat when the approaching vessels “fired live ammunition, first a single shot and then a burst of 10 to 15 rounds, and ordered the ship to stop,” the group said. The incident occurred around 0800 GMT about 27 miles from the Libyan coast, inside the search‑and‑rescue zone where Libyan authorities coordinate responses to people in distress at sea.
Sea‑Watch said roughly 30 crew members and the rescued people were aboard and feared for their lives. The crew issued a mayday call and alerted Italian and German authorities, later sending a second distress call as two vessels linked to the Libyan coast guard were reported nearby.
Italian coast guard spokesperson Roberto D’Arrigo confirmed that authorities had received a report of the incident. “This appears to be a security incident, for which the relevant bodies and authorities have been informed, including the vessel’s flag state (Germany),” he said. D’Arrigo added that the Sea‑Watch 5 was in the Libyan‑controlled search‑and‑rescue area at the time and was later escorted out of the area, heading north toward the Italian port of Brindisi, which was designated as a place of safety.
Sea‑Watch spokesperson Julia Winkler described the firing as an attack by forces “paid and legitimized by them” and called on European governments to intervene. A government spokesperson in Tripoli did not respond to a request for comment.
The incident underscores the persistent tensions between humanitarian rescue groups and Libyan‑linked patrols, which operate under a European Union‑backed arrangement that has channeled €700 million ($824 million) to Libya since 2015, much of it to reinforce border management. Critics, including humanitarian organizations, say the cooperation has fueled confrontations with NGO vessels and exposed migrants to abuse when they are intercepted and returned to Libya.
Sea‑Watch noted that Monday’s episode was not isolated. Last August, the aid group SOS Mediterranee reported that Libyan coast guard personnel had fired on its vessel Ocean Viking as it searched for a migrant boat in distress. Sea‑Watch said it had rescued all the people who were on the wooden boat before the shooting began.