An unprecedented armed assault, carried out by a force supported by the European Union (EU), targeted a humanitarian ship operating in the central Mediterranean on Sunday, August 24. The assault endangered the lives of the 87 shipwreck survivors onboard and the 25 crew members. On Monday, the non-governmental organization (NGO) SOS Méditerranée revealed that its rescue ship, the Ocean Viking, had come under automatic gunfire for about 20 minutes. Two masked Libyan coast guards opened fire without warning from a patrol boat identified as Italian-supplied.
The attack occurred at 3 pm in international waters, 70 kilometers north of Tripoli. It risks calling into question the work of NGOs involved in rescuing migrants – an effort far-right Council President Giorgia Meloni has sought for three years to drive out of the central Mediterranean.
“A small boat was heading toward us at full speed, sending a radio message in which the only understandable words in English were: ‘Out! Out!’, recounted Lucille Guenier, a 35-year-old communications officer and crew member that we spoke to on the phone and who was still in shock. “They kept coming closer, and then we heard the first shots. We threw ourselves to the ground as bullets went through the windows, the walls… They weren’t firing into the air, they were firing at us.”
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