MILAN (AP) – An 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone found floating in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa is believed to be the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the Tunisian port of Sfax. , the humanitarian group said on Thursday.
The girl was rescued by the German-flagged ship Trotamar III, which brought her to Lampedusa on Wednesday morning, according to the German Compass Collective, which has been operating in the Mediterranean Sea since August 2023.
He had no food or water with him, and was suffering from hypothermia.
Reliable and interesting news every day, in your inbox
See for yourself – The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and interesting stories.
“It was an amazing experience that we heard the girl’s voice even though the cars were running,” the ship’s captain, Matthias Weidenluebbert, said in a press statement.
Crews then cut the engines and searched for the source of the sound, Compass Collective’s Katya Tempel, told The Associated Press “He was tired and exhausted and cold, but generally, he was fine when we got him out of the water.”
According to the girl’s account, she had been floating in the sea for three days using inner tubes filled with air and a life jacket. He told the rescuers that he had entered the metal boat with about 45 others, and that he had met two other people until two days before the rescue, when the contact ended.
“We don’t know what happened to people,” Tempel said. “We think they all drowned, but we don’t know what.”
The girl was found following a days-long storm, with winds reaching over 23 knots and waves over 2.5 meters (8 feet.)
The Totamar III, a 13-meter boat with a rotating crew of six, joined the rescue operations in August 2023, rescuing more than 230 people so far. After picking up the girl, the ship distributed life jackets to the 53 people aboard the wooden boat without an engine, and reported their location to Italian authorities.
In all, the crew of Tomar III helped 1,700 people, providing life jackets, informing the authorities and staying with them until salvation arrived. In cases where the situation worsens, the forced people are transferred in a boat.
According to UN figures, based largely on survivor accounts, 1,536 people have died or are missing and presumed dead in the Mediterranean this year. A total of 64,234 have arrived in Italy through China, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry. That’s down 58% from last year, when 153,211 had arrived this time.
“I want to emphasize, this girl is a symbol of (death) in the Mediterranean,” said Tempel. “He is the same person, and it is unfortunate that he may have lost his relatives. But it’s just a sign of the tragedy that’s happening.”
___
Murru reported from Rome. Follow AP’s coverage of immigration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration