On 25 August, SOS Mediterranee announced that one of its rescue ships, the Ocean Viking — with its European crew members aboard — was shot at with small arms by a Libyan Coast Guard vessel in international waters off the coast of Khoms, after it rescued 87 migrants from an unseaworthy inflatable boat. There were no injuries. The Ocean Viking was slightly damaged. The patrol boat used by the Libyans in the attack was an Italian vessel gifted to the Libyan coast guard in 2023 as part of the EU’s ‘border management programme’. International media (Al Jazeera, EuroNews, the AP) have seized on the story running first hand reports that the Libyan coast guard members threatened in Arabic to kill members of Ocean Viking.
