The Lebanese Red Cross said it had dispatched ten ambulances to Tripoli.
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Posted on 4/24/2022 10:05 AM Updated on 4/24/2022 10:44 AM
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“Forty-five people were rescued and the body of a child” was recovered from a boat that sank off Tripoli, Lebanon on Saturday (April 23), Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport said. He said there were about sixty people on that boat transporting migrants. “The research continues.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said it had dispatched 10 ambulances to Tripoli. An AFP correspondent noted that the army had closed the port and only allowed ambulances in and out. Families of some passengers gathered to check in but were denied entry.
Lebanon, a country of about 6 million people, is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis and, according to the World Bank, on a scale usually associated with wars. The currency has lost more than 90% of its purchasing power and the majority of the population lives below the poverty line. According to the UN refugee agency, between January and November 2021, at least 1,570 people, including 186 Lebanese, left or attempted to leave Lebanon illegally by sea.