“The vessel sank in a storm.” That was all an 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone could tell the people who pulled her from the water off Lampedusa on December 11, 2024, according to ANSA. She is believed to be the only survivor of a boat that left Sfax, Tunisia, with 45 people aboard. Around 44 are thought to have died.
The German sailing vessel Trotamar III found her at 3:20 am. Its crew, volunteers with the NGO Compass Collective, were out on another operation when they heard her calling. Mediterranea Saving Humans said they caught the cries despite a running engine and waves over 7 feet high.
Three days adrift
She had spent three days in the water. The rescue group said she had made makeshift floats from tire tubes and was wearing a life jacket. ANSA reported that rescuers found her holding a life buoy as well. She was hypothermic but conscious.
The crew passed her to Lampedusa rescue services, and she reached the island at 6 am. BreakingNews.ie said she received medical assistance and was moved to a migrant holding center, where Italian Red Cross staff cared for her. Her boat, according to that report, was a metal vessel.
Hers was one of many arrivals that night. ANSA counted 356 migrants landing on the island before she did.
More boats feared lost
Mediterranea Saving Humans warned that “at least three other shipwrecks may have occurred in recent days” between Tunisia and Lampedusa, involving about 165 people in total. It asked Italian, Maltese and Tunisian authorities for coordinated search operations. “Lives in danger at sea cannot be abandoned in any way,” the group said.
The Trotamar III has assisted 1,653 people in distress since August 2023 and directly rescued 231, the group said.
The International Organisation for Migration has documented over 24,300 deaths and disappearances on the Central Mediterranean route since 2014, BreakingNews.ie reported. Arrivals in Italy were running at about 64,000 for the year so far, against 153,000 over the same stretch of 2023.
Sources
- Young girl rescued alone is sole survivor of shipwreck (ANSA)
- Civil sailing boat Trotamar III rescues a little girl at sea (Mediterranea Saving Humans)
- 11-year-old girl survives three days at sea as sole survivor of shipwreck off Italy (BreakingNews.ie)
