On 9 February, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that fifty-three migrants, including two babies, are dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized on 6 February off the coast of Zuwara in northwestern Libya. Only two Nigerian women were rescued during a search-and-rescue operation by Libyan authorities. One survivor reported losing her husband, while the other said she lost her two babies in the tragedy. IOM said its data shows that in January alone, at least 375 migrants were reported dead or missing following multiple ‘invisible’ shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean amid extreme weather, with hundreds more deaths believed to be unrecorded.
