Boat sinks in Tripoli port with 60 on board, at least one dead

BEIRUT — A boat sank in Lebanon's Tripoli port on Saturday with about 60 people on board. One child has died but more than 40 people have been rescued following the sinking of a boat off the coast of Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli on Saturday, Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

Here's what we know: 

    • The Lebanese government said in a statement that Prime Minister Najib Mikati is following up on the sinking of the boat carrying passengers that departed illegally from the Qalamoun area, south of Tripoli.

    • According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in North Lebanon, Mikati called both the army command to request the mobilization of the competent authorities and Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh to mobilize all concerned in the Tripoli port to support the rescue operation. 

     • According to information obtained by our correspondent, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl died in the incident. "We are still looking for the remainder of those who were on the boat, which included both Lebanese and Syrians," Hamieh told Reuters.

    • No press release has so far been issued by the army on this subject.

    • The boat sank near the Larkin Islands in Tripoli.   

    • Ambulances attended the scene of the incident.

    • Most of those trying to leave Lebanon illegally by sea are Syrian refugees, but the number of Lebanese also trying to leave is on the rise amid the country's now more than two-year-old economic and political crisis. Over this period, the purchasing power of the Lebanese has collapsed and the national currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value on the free market.

    • Between January and November 2021, at least 1,570 people, including 186 Lebanese, sailed illegally or tried to sail from Lebanon, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in the country.