27 sub-Saharan African migrants die off Tunisia in shipwrecks

Egyptian medics arrive on a boat carrying bodies of migrants, during a search operation after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Mediterranean, along the shore in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta on September 21, 2016. [AFP]

Twenty-seven migrants, including women and children, died after two boats capsized off central Tunisia, with 83 people rescued, a civil defence official told AFP on Thursday.

The rescued and dead passengers, who were found off the Kerkennah Islands, aimed to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries, said Zied Sdiri, head of civil defence in the nearby city of Sfax.