Twenty-seven sub-Saharan African migrants have died or gone missing after two shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia on Friday and Saturday, a court official in the central-eastern city of Sfax told AFP.

Two new maritime accidents have increased the death toll since early March to more than a hundred dead or missing in a series of shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia, according to AFP estimates.

According to testimony collected by the judiciary, 37 migrants “left the coast north of Sfax in two boats, one of which sank on Friday afternoon,” Fawzi Mashmoudi said.

He added that 20 of them were missing, and only “17 people who were on the second boat” were rescued.

Another shipwreck happened this morning, he told AFP this evening, saying “four bodies were found on the coast north of Sfax, three were missing and 36 people were rescued.”

This crash happened “closer to shore” than Friday’s.

The representative specified that the judiciary had launched an investigation into the circumstances of the maritime accidents.

The goal is also to “find the organizers of this whole crossing attempt who made them boats made of sheet metal, which do not provide even the minimum safety conditions, but are cheaper to build than wooden ones,” Mashmoudi explained.