Tunisian authorities announced on Thursday the recovery of nine bodies of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa off the coast of Mahdia, in the east of the country.

Maritime Guard units ‘recovered the bodies of nine irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Mahdia’, the General Directorate of the National Guard said in a statement on Facebook.

The Guard ‘received an urgent report of the breakdown of a boat off the coast of Mahdia carrying a group of irregular migrants of sub-Saharan African nationalities,’ the statement said.

According to a tally published by the National Guard last June, Tunisian authorities recovered 462 bodies of irregular migrants from the beginning of 2024 until last May, compared to 714 in the same period in 2023.