Ayla Emmink was resting in their cabin when the shooting started.
As deputy search-and-rescue coordinator (SARCO) on the rescue ship Ocean Viking, they had been awake for thirty-six hours.
The ship had taken eighty-seven people on board earlier that day (this past Sunday), rescued from two unseaworthy, overcrowded rubber boats in the central Mediterranean Sea. They included unaccompanied minors; most were refugees from Sudan, a country where three years of brutal civil war have claimed as many as 150,000 lives and displaced thirteen million.
It was a hot afternoon, and the Viking was searching for a third group at sea. As Ayla rested, a security alert crackled over the ship’s radio. Several similar alerts had happened recently, so Ayla was not overly worried.
Then came the sharp sound of objects striking the hull near Ayla’s cabin. A doctor, Ayla has worked in warzones from Ukraine to Sudan, most recently as a medical team lead during Israel’s autumn 2024 escalation in Lebanon. They recognized gunfire instantly.
“In a conflict zone I would be more expecting to face this level of violence,” says Ayla. “In the Mediterranean, this intensity of targeted shooting is beyond my anticipation and comprehension.”
They hurried to the bridge of the Viking, whose team were communicating with a fast-approaching Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) vessel.
They were in international waters, where free passage is a right, but the LCG ordered them to change course. Multiple similar incidents had occurred during the Viking’s rotation; each time, they complied to…
Auteur: Nathan Akehurst
