Three migrant sisters drown in ‘dangerously overcrowded’ boat

Three young Sudanese sisters fleeing their war-torn country drowned in the central Mediterranean after their overcrowded rubber dinghy began taking on water in rough seas, according to a German nonprofit.

The three girls, ages 9, 11 and 17, were crammed on a small boat alongside dozens of other migrants on the sea corridor that stretches from Zuwara, Libya, toward the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Roughly 65 people were bunched together aboard a flimsy inflatable as waves climbed to about five feet, the German rescue charity RESQSHIP said in a statement. The vessel is believed to have set sail from Libya either late Friday or early Saturday morning and was headed for Italy.

“While we were evacuating the people one by one from the rubber boat onto the [rescue ship] NADIR, I suddenly heard screams and someone pointed to the water inside the boat. It became clear that there were bodies underneath the surface,” Barbara Sartore, a communications coordinator on board the NADIR, said.

“The boat was dangerously overcrowded, it was pitch-dark, water was flooding in, people were panicking.”

Sartore said that in the chaos, it was impossible to see that the three sisters, sitting deep inside the boat, had already drowned.

“When the survivors realized, it was sheer horror,” she said.

Their mother and younger brother survived. Rescuers found the mother clutching the girls’ bodies until medical teams could reach her.

The vessel was far beyond capacity and already flooding when rescuers arrived. Several survivors were treated for exposure, dehydration and hypothermia before transport to Italy for processing, aid groups said.

At least one other person may still be missing. The search continued as authorities moved survivors off the rescue ship.

The sisters’ deaths add to a toll that has made the central Mediterranean the world’s deadliest migration route.

More than 30,000 people have died or vanished in the Mediterranean since 2014 — over 22,000 on this central corridor alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Nearly 2,000 have already perished this year, underscoring why it’s called the world’s deadliest migration route.

The family fled Sudan, where renewed fighting in recent years has pushed civilians to risk the sea rather than remain amid conflict and economic collapse. Many passengers on similar boats come from Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, aid groups say.

The dinghy that carried the sisters launched from Libya, a common staging point for smugglers who pack people onto unseaworthy boats and shove them toward Italian waters.

Smugglers often provide just enough fuel to enter international waters and a phone to call for help.

RESQSHIP located the bodies and coordinated the rescue, according to the group. Other NGOs — including Sea-Watch and Médecins Sans Frontières — regularly sweep the same waters for vessels in distress.

As the rescuers worked, conditions worsened around the dinghy.

Responders described a chaotic scene: panicked passengers, a flooding hull and the race to prevent more people from slipping beneath the waves.

The sisters’ mother was taken aboard in severe distress. Medics and crew members tried to console her as they stabilized other survivors, according to the charity’s account.

Italy has faced a surge in arrivals this year. More than 90,000 people had reached Italian shores by August, straining reception centers and stoking political fights across Europe over who should take responsibility.

Aid groups say delays in assigning ports and long transits ordered by authorities can sap rescue capacity just as multiple boats are launched at once. Governments counter that NGO ships encourage crossings and must follow stricter rules.

Bad weather only raises the stakes. Small inflatables ride low, flex under weight and can fold in on themselves when winds pick up — turning a routine patrol into a mass-casualty scramble in minutes.