A truck enters port of Tripoli on Monday. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Cabinet has convened in an extraordinary session this morning at the Presidential Palace in Baabda to discuss the sinking of a vessel carrying more than 60 migrants off the coast of Tripoli on Saturday night, according to a tweet from Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office. In addition, the government ministers will discuss the security situation across Lebanon.
Here’s what we know:
• Army chief Joseph Aoun and the army’s director of intelligence Brig. Gen. Tony Kahwaji, as well as its navy commander Col. Haitham Dnaoui, were summoned to the cabinet session to report on the preliminary investigation into the shipwreck, the NNA reported.
• At least six people died in the shipwreck on Saturday, while more than 30 of those who were aboard the boat remain missing. A search for the remaining passengers continues by land, air and sea.
• On Sunday, the army said the boat sank after leaving Qalamoun due to “high waves and the overload of the boat.” A survivor disputed this claim, saying that the boat sank after being chased by the army. “The patrol boat hit our boat twice,” he told AFP at the Port of Tripoli, before families of survivors asked him to be quiet.
• In Beirut and Saida, people protested and held sit-ins in solidarity with those who died in the incident.
• President Michel Aoun on Sunday morning called for an investigation into the circumstances of the sinking and Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Monday as an official day of mourning.