---
title: "Twelve die off Zarzis, and Ben Guerdane burns tyres for its missing young men"
description: "Fifteen people left for Italy late on Friday. One survived, after about 48 hours adrift. Fourteen of those on board came from the same town, which spent Sunday night blocking its own roads."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Jasmine Howard"
published: 2026-08-25T01:36:25.000Z
updated: 2026-08-25T01:36:25.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/twelve-die-off-zarzis-and-ben-guerdane-burns-tyres-for-its-missing-young-men
tags: ["tunisia", "migration", "mediterranean", "protests", "north-africa"]
---
# Twelve die off Zarzis, and Ben Guerdane burns tyres for its missing young men

Fifteen people left for Italy late on Friday. One survived, after about 48 hours adrift. Fourteen of those on board came from the same town, which spent Sunday night blocking its own roads.

A boat carrying 15 people sank about 14 nautical miles, some 26km, off the coast of Zarzis in southeastern Tunisia late on Friday, [Al Jazeera reports](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/25/search-continues-in-tunisia-after-migrant-boat-sinking-sparks-protests). At least 12 people died and two are still missing. One person survived, picked up by a commercial vessel after roughly 48 hours in the water.

Bodies had been recovered by Sunday and genetic testing is under way to identify them.

## Why the protests are in Ben Guerdane

Fourteen of those aboard were from Ben Guerdane. One was from Zarzis. The boat left from the coast between the two towns and was heading for Italy.

On Sunday night, Ben Guerdane burned tyres and blocked roads, and police used tear gas. The demands were not about migration policy. Protesters called for better living conditions and economic development, citing a lack of opportunity and years of marginalization as the reason young people take these boats.

That is the point worth holding onto. This was not a demonstration about borders or about Europe. It was a town objecting to the conditions that made 14 of its own decide the crossing was worth attempting.

## How it was put locally

Imad Oulad Jibril, a member of parliament, said it was "the tragedy of a nation that sees its youth fleeing the hardships of the land only to be swallowed by the sea".

The opposition Democratic Bloc asked a question rather than making a statement: "When crossing the sea becomes easier than living in Tunisia, who is at fault?"

We quote both because they are the local political response, and because the framing in each is domestic. Neither blames smugglers or European policy, which are the usual subjects when this route is discussed from outside.

## The route

The central Mediterranean is the deadliest migration route in the world. At least 821 people have died or disappeared on it this year, more than double the figure for the same period last year.

A doubling is not a small fluctuation, and it is worth being careful about what it can and cannot tell us. A rising death count can mean more crossings, more dangerous crossings, or better recording of losses that previously went uncounted. The source does not break it down, and we are not going to guess which.

## What we could not establish

We could not establish the nationalities of those aboard, their ages, whether any arrests have been made, the state of the search for the two missing, or the government's response to the protests. We verified this account from a single publication.

## Sources

- [Search continues in Tunisia as migrant boat sinking sparks protests](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/25/search-continues-in-tunisia-after-migrant-boat-sinking-sparks-protests)