At least four migrants dead, 51 missing after ship sinks off Tunisia’s coast

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 January 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 record wave of migration this year and frequent catastrophes of boats of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa heading to Italian coasts sinking.

Tunisia replaced Libya as the region’s main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in hopes of a better life in Europe.