In a remarkable tale of survival, an 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone was rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, after being the sole survivor of a migrant boat shipwreck. The boat had departed from Sfax, Tunisia, with approximately 45 people on board, according to Compass Collective, a German humanitarian organization.

The girl was saved on Wednesday morning by Trotamar III, a German-flagged sailboat involved in humanitarian rescue missions. After three days adrift, using only inflated innertubes and a life jacket to stay afloat, she was discovered suffering from hypothermia, exhausted but otherwise in stable condition.

“It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the voice of a girl even though the motors were running,’’ said Trotamar III’s captain, Matthias Weidenluebbert. The crew immediately stopped their engines and searched for her, ultimately pulling her from the water.

A Stormy Ordeal

The girl’s rescue followed a severe storm, with winds exceeding 23 knots and waves over 8 feet high, which had battered the region for days. She recounted that she had remained in contact with two others from the boat until two days before her rescue, after which contact was lost. The fate of the other passengers is unclear, but rescuers fear all may have drowned.

“She was exhausted and tired and cold, but in general, she was fine when we fetched her out of the water,” said Katja Tempel of Compass Collective, speaking to The Associated Press.

Humanitarian Efforts Continue

Following the girl’s rescue, Trotamar III distributed life jackets to 53 people aboard a wooden boat without a motor and reported their location to Italian authorities. The 13-meter vessel, with a rotating crew of six, has been actively participating in rescue operations in the Mediterranean since August 2023 and has saved over 230 people to date.

Credit: AP