More than 150 people were on board the small boat that sailed from crisis-hit Lebanon on Wednesday morning, with the hope of reaching Italy for a better life.
Syrian state media reported that 97 people have died, 20 people have been rescued, and others are still missing, while according to the Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie 24 children and 31 women are among the dead.
The disaster highlights the crippling poverty and mounting despair that has been forcing many people in Lebanon to attempt the perilous crossing across the Mediterranean, in hopes of reaching Europe.
Lebanon, a country that hosts more than a million refugees from Syria’s war, has since 2019 been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern time, and those on board, according to the United Nations, were mostly Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians.
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