A boat carrying Syrian migrants sank off the coast of Algeria on Tuesday night, killing at least four people, according to reports.
It is unclear how many people were on board the boat – which was bound for Spain according to the Syrian monitor Violations Documentation Centre – when it sank.
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Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish news outlets said 34 people were onboard the boat, but a relative of one of the victims told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that there were only seven Syrians and five Algerians on board.
The Violations Documentation Centre said that four of the migrants who died were from the northern Syria town of Kobani.
More than 11 million people have fled their homes in Syria since 2011 when a civil war began after Bashar al-Assad’s regime brutally crushed popular protests.
More than five million have left the country entirely, with many crossing the Mediterranean en route to Europe.
Though most Syrians head to Europe via Turkey, others have travelled to North Africa to board boats crossing the Mediterranean.
Last week, a boat that departed from Lebanon carrying Syrian and other migrants sank off the Syrian coast, killing almost 100 people.
The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
