At least eighteen people have died after a wooden vessel carrying dozens of migrants capsized off the coast of Libya on Tuesday, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has confirmed.
According to an IOM statement, the vessel overturned only a few hours into its journey due to high waves off the coast of Surman, Libya, leaving dozens of passengers stranded at sea. The agency said 64 people were rescued during the operation.
Among the survivors were 29 Sudanese men, one Sudanese woman, one Sudanese child, 18 Bangladeshi men, 12 Pakistani men, and three Somali men. Authorities have yet to confirm the nationalities of those who lost their lives.
“This latest shipwreck is a stark reminder of the grave dangers faced by people undertaking perilous sea journeys in search of safety and opportunity,” the IOM said, noting that the central Mediterranean route remains one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors.
READ ALSO:Â PICTORIAL: NEMA Receives 147 Stranded Nigerians From Libya
The organization’s Missing Migrants Project has so far documented 1,046 deaths and disappearances along this route in 2025, including 527 off the Libyan coast.
Tuesday’s tragedy occurred less than a week after another deadly incident in which 40 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off Tunisia.
The IOM said it is working with local partners to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to survivors and reiterated its call for urgent international action to prevent further loss of life at sea.