Girl, 11, saved in Mediterranean after clinging onto tyre tubes for three days
An 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone has been found as the only survivor of a migrant shipwreck after floating in the Mediterranean Sea for three days using tyre tubes.
The migrant boat set sail from the port of Sfax in Tunisia with about 45 other people on board, including women and children, who are all now believed to have drowned, UNICEF said.
The girl managed to stay afloat at sea wearing a life jacket and clinging to two tyre tubes, surviving without water or food.
The 11-year-old told rescuers that she was travelling with her brother and cousin who both died.
She was suffering from hypothermia as she was rescued by the German-flagged sailboat, and was then taken to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday morning.
The girl was found after a storm that lasted for several days, with winds of 26 mph and waves exceeding eight feet.
Captain of the German sailboat, Matthias Weidenluebbert, said in a press statement: "It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the voice of a girl even though the motors were running."
The crew quickly cut the engines and searched for the voice's source, according to the German charity Compass Collective, which has been operating in the Mediterranean Sea since August 2023.
“She was exhausted and tired and cold, but in general, she was fine when we fetched her out of the water," Compass Collective's Katja Tempel said.
"We don’t know what happened to the people... We assume that they all drowned.
"I want to emphasise, this girl is just a sign for the (deaths) in the Mediterranean... she's one person, and its very sad that she probably lost her relatives. But it is just a symbol for the tragedy that is happening."
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UNICEF's regional director for Europe and Central Asia, Regina De Dominicis said that the third deadly migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean.
"Since 2014, nearly 31,000 people have died or disappeared while migrating across the Mediterranean," she said.
"This includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five of all people migrating through the Mediterranean. The majority are fleeing violent conflict and poverty.
"UNICEF is also calling on governments to address the root causes that lead families to migrate as well as promote their integration into host communities.
"The rights of children on the move need to be protected at all times during all phases of their migration journey."
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