On 13 March, the NGO SOS Mediterranee, on their ship Ocean Viking, rescued 25 people who had been adrift at sea on a partially deflated dinghy for a week. They had departed from Zawiyya with around 85 people, 60 of whom had perished. Later the same day, the Ocean Viking rescued another 113 people adrift off the coast of Libya in a wooden boat.
Late on 16 March, MSF said that a boat from Libyan Coast Guards – which it identified as the EUfunded LCG-302 – ‘recklessly manoeuvred in front of RHIBS belonging to the MSF vessel GeoBarents, putting in danger the survivors as well as MSF Teams. MSF said that after intense negotiations and calls to Norway, Italy and Libya, the Coast Guard withdrew, but not without threats. In total, MSF rescued 249 people from several incidents that day.