For weeks, one severe storm after another has been moving across the southern Mediterranean and North Africa. Several city centers in Morocco are currently under water and 100,000 people have had to temporarily leave their apartments and houses. The army and civil defense are deployed in Sicily and Tunisia to clear the massive debris left behind by Cyclone “Harry” on January 20th and the days after.
At the same time, a desperate search operation is underway in the Mediterranean, the progress of which suggests that “Harry” was not only the strongest storm in 70 years, but also one of the deadliest.
Five dead people were recovered from cars swept away by the flood in Tunisia. After the storm passed, relatives of 380 migrants who had left Tunisia on boats called the coast guards of Italy and Malta for help. To date there has been no sign of life from the passengers. The only survivor may be Ibrahim Conthe, whom the crew of the Egyptian cargo ship Star discovered and rescued floating in the sea off Malta on January 24.
Conthe and 50 other passengers were in a metal boat that set off from Sfax. After it sank within minutes, he clung to a car tire tube that had been converted into a life preserver for 24 hours.
More than a thousand people on the move
Now research by the NGO “Mediterranea Saving Humans” and witness statements from Libya show that a total of more than a thousand migrants and refugees were traveling in the maritime area between Malta, Libya, Tunisia and Lampedusa.
The president of the Italian organization, Laura Marmorale, was horrified after the interviews with searching relatives in Libya and Tunisia. “The contours of the greatest tragedy in recent years along the central Mediterranean routes are emerging. The governments of Italy and Malta remain silent and do nothing.”
The maritime emergency control center (MRCC) in Rome responsible for the area forwarded the number of 380 missing people to all naval and coast guard ships operating in the area on January 24th, and the exact departure times and locations of other boats are now also known.
Because no remains of boats, bodies or other survivors have been found so far, hopes that there could be other survivors besides Ibrahim Conthe are dwindling.
Meter-high waves
The taz spoke to several migrants in Tunisia who were waiting for a sign of life from fellow travelers who had boarded boats. The previously unknown departures were confirmed in the informal tent cities north of the port city of Sfax, where tens of thousands of people from sub-Saharan Africa live. There were also some boats from the Libyan coastal town of Zuwara and Tripoli, reports Red Crescent employees.
The waves were 9 meters high and they probably simply rolled over the boats and their passengers
Tunisian fisherman
None of the passengers’ cell phones can be reached and no emergency calls were made. A Tunisian fisherman who is looking for three colleagues who went missing during the cyclone off Sfax is certain: “The waves were 9 meters high, they probably simply rolled over the boats and their passengers.”
Single-engine surveillance aircraft from the Tunisian National Guard, drones and private rescue ships such as the “Ocean Viking” and “Life Support” continue to search for the missing.
“They should have found survivors long ago,” says Abubakr Bangui, a father from Sierra Leone, whose cousin spontaneously decided to book a place on board one of the boats. Bangui wanted to stop him from making the decision. “But the organizer of the trips, a man from Mauritania, had reduced the price to 200 euros because of the storm.” Many on board have already been deported to the Sahara several times, reports Bengui. “Her desperation has now driven her to her death.”