Tunisia News

Nine people, including a baby, have died after their boat capsized while trying to cross the Mediterranean in stormy weather, and another 15 people are feared missing, Italy's coast guard said on Thursday.The Italian coast guard said it received a cooperation request from the Maltese search and rescue (SAR) authority after the boat capsized approximately 30 miles (50 km) southeast of the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday .The coast guard said it dispatched its own patrol boat to the scene…

A German charity vessel was on Tuesday impounded by Italian authorities after it ran into a dispute with the Libyan coast guard over the rescue of as many as 100 migrants in international waters.Italy often temporarily blocks the operations of charity-operated rescue vessels on the basis of a migration decree introduced last year by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist government.The Humanity 1, operated by the SOS Humanity organization, was blocked for 20 days in the southern port of Crotone…

Russia cut its seaborne diesel and gasoil exports by nearly 30% to about 1.7 million metric tons in the first 20 days of September from the same time in August, as local refineries went into seasonal maintenance and the domestic market faces a fuel shortage and rising prices, traders said and LSEG data showed.Idle primary oil refining capacity for September is estimated at 4.657 million tons, up 45% from August, according to Reuters calculations.Due to the domestic fuel shortage…

Russia's seaborne diesel and gasoil exports in August rose by 2% from a month earlier to about 3.85 million metric tons on healthy fuel production, data from traders and LSEG showed.Idle primary oil refining capacity for August was estimated at 3.1 million metric tons versus 2.458 million metric tons in July, Refinitiv Eikon data and Reuters calculations showed.After the full EU embargo on Russian oil products took effect on Feb. 5, Turkey remains the main destination for Russian diesel and gasoil seaborne exports…

Italian authorities on Wednesday said forty-one migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean, according to accounts by survivors who have been taken to the island of Lampedusa.Local public prosecutor Salvatore Vella confirmed media reports that four people who survived the shipwreck told rescuers they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.Vella's office has opened an investigation into the incident.The 7-meter-long boat set off on Thursday morning from Tunisia's Sfax…

At least four migrants died and 51 were missing after a migrant ship sank off Tunisia's Kerkennah island, a judicial official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that all the migrants onboard were from sub-Saharan Africa.The Tunisian coast guard recovered 901 bodies of drowned migrants off its coast from Jan. 1 to July 20 this year, the country's interior minister said in July, marking an unprecedented number of victims off the country's coasts. The North Africa country is facing a…

Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near Greece have given accounts of traffickers in North Africa cramming them into a clapped-out fishing trawler. They recounted hellish conditions above and below deck, with no food or water.Some also said the tragic end, when it came, was precipitated by the actions of the Greek coastguard. They have told judicial authorities of a doomed attempt to tow the overloaded trawler that caused the vessel to capsize…

Tunisia's coastguard has recovered 15 more bodies of migrants, bringing the death toll from a shipwreck off Tunisia to 25, a security official told Reuters on Thursday.A wooden boat packed with about 110 migrants sank on Wednesday off the coast of the city of Sfax. Seventy-six people were rescued while the rest are still missing.Drowning accidents off Tunisia have dramatically increased in recent weeks, leaving dozens dead and missing, amid a sharp rise in migrant boats heading towards Italy from the Tunisian coast.The coastguard recovered the bodies of 14 migrants…

Russia increased its sea-borne diesel exports by 12% month-on-month in March to 4.5 million tonnes, boosting shipments to other destinations after its products were banned from the EU market, Refinitiv data and Reuters calculations showed.A full EU embargo on Russian oil products went into effect on Feb. 5.Turkey remains the top destination for Russian diesel and gasoil supplies, with its shipments almost doubling last month to about 1.6 million tonnes, according to Refinitiv…

At least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died when their two boats sank off the coast of Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, the Tunisian coast guard said on Sunday. Separately, in the last four days, five migrant boats have sunk off the coast of the southern city of Sfax, leaving 67 missing and nine dead, after a significant increase in boats heading towards Italy.Tunisia has taken over from Libya as a main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life in Europe.Houssem Jebabli…

A rescue ship funded by British street artist Banksy was seized in Lampedusa on Sunday after Italy's coast guard said the boat had disobeyed its instructions to head to Sicily after carrying out a migrant rescue operation. The coast guard said it had ordered the MV Louise Michel ship to dock in Trapani in Sicily after it performed an initial rescue operation in Libya's Search And Rescue area. The ship instead went to assist migrants on three other boats in Malta's Search And Rescue area. The coast guard added that it was already on its way to assist the three other boats at the time. It ordered the Louise Michel to dock in accordance with a new law passed in Italy this year establishing a code of conduct for migrant charity ships, the coast guard said.

The Italian coast guard has rescued around 750 migrants in two separate operations off the country's southern coastline, hours after at least five people died and 33 were missing in an attempted sea crossing from Tunisia.The coast guard said some 295 people were rescued from a fishing boat intercepted 167 km from the eastern coast of the Calabria region, while about 450 were rescued from another fishing vessel 185 km east of Syracuse in southern Sicily.The second vessel was in precarious state of seaworthiness…

Despite all of the challenges that COVID-19 has wrought upon the marine industry, SAFE Boats International has managed to keep building and delivering boats to its customers. A snapshot of the last six months has seen the Bremerton, Wash. boatbuilder deliver more 30 boats, and it has a healthy backlog to keep busy for the next year and beyond. Its range of boats and customers runs from small to large, and deliveries stretch across the globe.Below are highlights of vessels SAFE…

At least 3 Tunisians migrants died and another 3 were missing after their boat sank off Tunisia on Thursday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, a Tunisian civil protection civil official told Reuters.Atef Haouij, a local official in Medenine, said that the boat, which contained 17 Tunisian migrants, sank off the coast of the island of Djerba.(Reuters - Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Two grain ships have been stuck in the port of Sfax in Tunisia since last month due to non-payment of dues, a union official told Reuters on Thursday.Adel Marzouk, the official in the union of Grain Office, added that two other ships have been waiting since the beginning of this month as well.Officials in the government were not immediately available for comment.(Reporting By Tarek Amara/Editing by Chris Reese)

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index  rose to an over one-month high on Thursday, boosted by higher rates for capesize and panamax segments.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, rose 159 points, or 6.4%, to 2,644 points, the highest since March 15.The capesize index rose 402 points, or 17.3%, to 2,721 points.Chinese iron ore and steel futures rose on Thursday after the country's central bank said it would take monetary policy steps to help businesses hit by the COVID-19 outbreak and support a recovery in consumption.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index rose to a near six-week high on Wednesday, helped by higher rates for capesize and panamax segments.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, rose 73 points, or 3%, to 2,485 points, the highest since March 25.The capesize index rose 172 points, or 8%, to 2,319 points. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, increased $1…

Tunisia will work with other countries that have offered to help it to prevent environmental damage after a merchant ship carrying up to one thousand tonnes of oil sank in Tunisian waters, the defense ministry said on Sunday.The [Xelo] ship was heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta when it sank seven miles off the coast of the southern city of Gabes on Friday. The Tunisian navy rescued all seven crew members following a distress call.

Tunisian authorities intensified efforts on Saturday to avoid an environmental disaster after a merchant fuel ship carrying one thousand tons of fuel sank off the coast of Gabes on Friday, two security sources told Reuters.The Tunisian navy had rescued all seven crew members from the ship, which was heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta, and sent a distress call seven miles away from southern city of Gabes, the sources added.The cause of the incident was bad weather, the environment ministry said, adding that water had seeped into the ship, reaching a height of two meters.Authorities were wo

A Togo-flagged cargo ship sank on Saturday after hitting Greek islets in the Aegean Sea but all 16 crew were rescued, the Greek coast guard said.The freighter Sea Bird, which sailed from Ukraine and was bound for Tunisia, sent a distress signal after sailing into rocky islets in the southwestern Aegean Sea, the coast guard said in a statement.Nearby vessels rescued all 16 Syrian crew, a coast guard official said.It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.Three anti-pollution vessels have rushed to the scene to check whether there was any leaking from the freighter, the coast guard added.(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

German NGO Sea-Watch said on Friday it had rescued nearly 100 migrants in the Mediterranean overnight, many of whom were injured, some with severe "fuel burns" - chemical burns caused by exposure to gasoline mixed with seawater.Migrant boat departures from Libya and Tunisia to Italy and other parts of Europe have increased in recent months with better weather.According to the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1,100 people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have perished this year in the Mediterranean.Late on Thursday…

At least 57 people drowned on Monday after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast near Khums, the latest tragedy in the central Mediterranean, the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. "According to survivors brought to shore by fishermen and the coast guard, at least 20 women and two children were among those who drowned," IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said in a tweet.Migrant boat departures to Italy and other parts of Europe from Libya and Tunisia have increased in recent months with better weather.

At least seven migrants, one of them pregnant, drowned after a boat carrying them capsized five miles off the Italian island of Lampedusa early on Wednesday, officials said.About 10 other people were missing, Luigi Patronaggio, the chief prosecutor of a team leading investigations into the deaths, told Reuters.The migrants are believed to have started their journey in Tunisia, said Patronaggio, who is working with magistrates based in the Sicilian city of Agrigento."This latest tragedy in the Mediterranean is heartbreaking…