Libyan Coast Guard Fires on Migrant Rescue Ship in Mediterranean
A migrant rescued by the Ocean Viking, Aug. 24, 2025. X/ @SOSMedIntl
August 25, 2025 Hour: 9:06 am
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Italian authorities redirect the Ocean Viking to Sicily after the attack.
On Sunday afternoon, the SOS Mediterranee vessel Ocean Viking, carrying 87 migrants rescued hours earlier, was struck by multiple bullets fired from a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat.
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The ship had rescued a vessel off the coast of Libya before coming under fire, SOS Mediterranee said, showing images of hatches hit by the bullets. No one on board was injured and the crew was working on “a detailed reconstruction of events.”
Italy’s Interior Ministry, which had ordered the migrants to be disembarked in Marina di Carrara, in the country’s north, changed its instructions after the attack, allowing the humanitarian ship to head toward Syracuse, the nearest port in Sicily.
“The 87 survivors and the crew on board were not wounded. We are currently working on a detailed reconstruction of events,” SOS Mediterranee posted on X.
Radio Radicale journalist Sergio Scandura, a European migration expert, wrote on X that the attack was carried out by a vessel supplied by Italy to the Libyan Coast Guard.
“It is unacceptable that operators who intervened to save 87 lives were fired upon after a rescue. Our deepest sympathy goes to the crew and to the rescued migrants who, in addition to carrying out the necessary activities to respond to the shipwreck, had to endure this sad episode, which we hope will not be repeated,” said Rosario Valastro, president of the Italian Red Cross.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans disembarked 10 migrants in the Sicilian port of Trapani after rescuing them in the central Mediterranean, defying Italian authorities’ instructions to head to Genoa.
The ship’s commander, Beppe Caccia, decided Saturday night to bring the people ashore in Sicily, saying they needed urgent medical and psychological assistance. He refused to take them to Genoa, the distant port designated by Italian authorities, which was about three days’ sailing away.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: SOS Mediterranee – EFE
