Mohanad spent three days lost at sea in an overcrowded wooden boat while travelling from Libya to Europe. Passengers ran out of food, water, and fuel, mixed sugar with seawater to try to drink, and drifted in and out of consciousness. An Ethiopian passenger slipped overboard and drowned despite attempts to search for him. On the third morning a search-and-rescue ship with MSF markings appeared and rescued the survivors, providing nutritional supplements and water before taking them to a migrant centre in Bari, Italy. Mohanad is from Darfur and belongs to the Zaghawa ethnic group targeted by discrimination and militia violence.
For three days, Mohanad had been lost at sea in an overcrowded wooden boat. Travelling across the Mediterranean from Libya to Europe, he and the other passengers had run out of food and water, were running out of fuel, and had mixed their remaining sugar with sea water to see if they could drink it. It was madness, he says.
On the morning of the third day, the sea was calmer, but no land was visible. A white object appeared on the horizon. It got bigger and bigger. When the people on the boat with Mohanad saw the letters MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) on the side, they got up to shout and cheer. I cried, Mohanad says. He urged the others to calm down, and to think of the women and children on board, as their boat almost capsized in the excitement.
The larger vessel was a search and rescue ship called Geo Barents, which was operated by MSF. On board, they were given nutritional supplements and water, before being taken to a migrant centre in Bari, on the coast of southern Italy. Mohanad was overwhelmed with relief, and says it was like being born again. I just kept remembering, I'm not going to go back to Libya.
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