OVER 1,000 PEOPLE MISSING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN FOLLOWING CYCLONE HARRY? What We Know — and What Remains Unaccounted For.
- Refugees in Libya
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
According to information transmitted through official maritime channels, at least 380 people were reported missing at sea as of 24 January, unaccounted for, for up to ten days following departures from Sfax on Tunisia’s eastern coast. This figure came from a single Search and Rescue (SAR) alert dispatch issued to “All Ships in Area” and transmitted via the Inmarsat network by the Italian Coast Guard MRCC.
The dispatch grouped eight separate SAR cases, corresponding to eight vessels that departed from Sfax between 14 and 21 January 2026, carrying the following numbers of people:
49, 54, 50, 51, 36, 42, 53, and 45 individuals — for a total of approximately 380 people.
As of 24 January, none of these vessels had been located, and no confirmed rescues linked to these eight SAR cases had been reported.
These departures coincided precisely with the period in which the Central Mediterranean, including the route from Sfax toward Lampedusa, was experiencing extreme maritime conditions: waves exceeding seven meters and wind gusts reaching over 54 knots, caused by Cyclone Harry. In other words, the boats did not simply disappear; they vanished during some of the most dangerous sea conditions recorded this season.
This is the official baseline. It is what maritime authorities themselves acknowledged on 24 January.
What follows goes beyond the baseline.
In the same period, footage emerged documenting the rescue of Ramadan Konte, a Sierra Leonean national and survivor of a shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean. According to his testimony, he departed from Sfax aboard a boat carrying around 50 people of different nationalities. The boat capsized. Konte survived more than 24 hours at sea before being spotted by a sailing vessel east of Tunisia and south of Malta. During the rescue, bodies were visible floating in the water. Konte lost his brother, his brother’s wife, his nephew, and at least 47 others.
He was later handed over to the Maltese Coast Guard.
Konte’s testimony matters not only for what it reveals about one shipwreck, but for what it confirms about the broader pattern: boats leaving Sfax during this period were entering lethal conditions with little to no chance of survival and no proactive rescue presence.
Alongside this, community-based monitoring paints a far wider and more alarming picture.
From 15 January onward, multiple convoys launched from different coastal points around Sfax — including areas locally referred to as kilometres 19, 21, 25, 27, 30, 31, 33, 35, and 38. According to testimonies collected from people who were meant to be on these boats but were forced to wait due to lack of money, as well as from relatives of those who departed, entire convoys never returned.
One smuggler alone, known locally as Mohamed “Mauritania,” is reported to have pushed five convoys, each carrying between 50 and 55 people. From kilometres 19 to 21, community sources speak of ten boats launched. From kilometre 30, seven boats departed; only one is confirmed to have reached Italy, in addition to Ramadan Konte’s survival. The rest remain unaccounted for.
From kilometres 33 and 38, seven more convoys were launched. Only one returned to the olive groves near Sfax. Survivors later said they believed being redirected to the desert saved their lives, as they witnessed shipwrecks at sea. When they later moved toward Mahdia, Tunisian police arrested them.
As days passed beyond 24 January, new names continued to surface — people known to have departed who were now unreachable, with no calls from Libya, no contact from detention, no confirmation of death, and no trace from the Algerian desert.
Our information remains fragmented and conflicting, not because of negligence, but because there is no central system recording departures, losses, or recoveries. Community organisers within our sister movement, Refugees in Tunisia, relatives of the missing, and trusted observers report different numbers: five boats from one location, ten from another, six over ten days, or five carrying around 180 people. These discrepancies do not cancel one another out; they point to a single reality — the scale exceeds what is officially acknowledged.
The human cost is immediate and devastating. Violent tensions have erupted between Ivorian and Guinean communities linked to the missing boats. Families are trapped in unbearable uncertainty. Our comrade Dr. Ibrahim, who runs self-organised medical clinics, has five family members missing: his child, his two wives, and relatives. A well-known Nigerian human rights activist within our movement is also missing, having departed in another convoy.
Meanwhile, dozens of bodies have been recovered by Maltese authorities in the same period. On the days following 24 January, one additional body was recovered by teams onboard the Ocean Viking rescue ship in the Maltese Search and Rescue Region.
So what is the answer to the question in the title?
Do we know that over 1,000 people are missing?
Formally, no authority has confirmed that number.
But do we know that 380 people were officially listed as missing as of 24 January, that dozens of bodies have already surfaced, that entire convoys disappeared during a cyclone, and that community tracking suggests a far higher number of departures than those acknowledged in official SAR alerts?
Yes. Unequivocally.
What we are witnessing is not a lack of information, but lack of action.
At Refugees in Libya, we remain in contact with families and communities living through this uncertainty. We reiterate our urgent call to Italy, Malta, Spain, and the European Union to initiate immediate, transparent, and large-scale search and rescue operations and bring the people home whether dead or alive.
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