One year after the attack on the Ocean Viking, a growing fleet of Libyan actors continues to threaten people in distress and rescue vessels with impunity

Instead of prompting scrutiny, the attack has been followed by an expansion of European funding, training and technical support to the very Libyan actors responsible for this violence at sea. This support continues to underpin a system that intercepts and forcibly returns people back to Libya, where they face well-documented human rights violations, arbitrary detention, exploitation and violence. 

Meanwhile at sea, threats against rescue vessels and people in distress have continued, with a wider range of Libyan actors carrying out acts of violence and dangerous manoeuvres with a growing number of boats at their disposal. 

Accountability still out of reach 

Following the attack, SOS MEDITERRANEE initiated legal proceedings in Italy, France and Germany to establish responsibility and seek justice. But while these cases take time, calls for political accountability have fallen on deaf ears in European capitals. 

The vessel involved in the shooting, the Houn 664, was supplied to the Libyan authorities by the Italian government through SIBMMIL, an EU-funded border and migration management programme in Libya. The same vessel was previously involved in an attack against the Ocean Viking in July 2023, when shots were fired during an ongoing rescue operation. Internal EU documents have since confirmed that the EU Delegation to Libya was aware of this earlier attack. 

Investigations by SOS MEDITERRANEE and IRPI Media found that at least €61.2 million in European funds were channelled into cooperation projects with Libyan authorities between 2017 and 2025, while nearly half of the programme budget could not be fully traced. Despite the existence of due diligence procedures, reporting requirements and human rights safeguards, meaningful transparency and accountability for the use of this funding remain lacking. 

European cooperation expanding 

Rather than being reassessed in the aftermath of the shooting, European cooperation with Libyan authorities has intensified. 

In September 2025, just one month after the shooting of the Ocean Viking, EU Operation IRINI trained 30 Libyan Coast Guard officers, including 15 from eastern Libyan units. Less than a year later, in July 2026, the EU Ambassador to Libya confirmed that preparations had been completed to establish a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Benghazi, funded by Italy and Malta.

These developments reflect a broader policy trajectory in which migration control remains a central priority, despite repeated reports of abuses associated with interceptions and returns to Libya. 

A growing and increasingly dangerous presence at sea 

This environment of impunity, continued funding, and legitimation has tangible consequences for people attempting to cross the Mediterranean and the NGOs mobilising to save lives. 

SOS MEDITERRANEE’s aerial monitoring mission Albatross has documented an increased presence of unmarked speedboats operated by unidentified Libyan actors, alongside new Libyan Coast Guard vessels. According to IRPI Media, Libyan Coast Guard actors and militias now operate as many as 97 boats across a maritime area extending up to 60 Nautical Miles from the Libyan coast. These vessels reportedly belong to 11 different Libyan armed groups, including both state-affiliated and private actors.

People in distress and civil rescue ships appear to be fair game to this growing fleet. Albatross has documented numerous violent interceptions endangering lives, including an incident in which an unidentified RHIB towed an unseaworthy rubber boat back towards Libya with people in distress still on board. In another documented case, a Libyan Coast Guard patrol vessel – donated, once again, by Italy in 2023 – rammed an overcrowded boat in distress as it attempted to reach safety. These documented incidents, however, are just the tip of the iceberg, as each forced return to Libya constitutes a breach of maritime law and the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to places where they face serious risks of harm. 

A new and worrying phenomenon emerged recently. On at least 7 occasions between June and July 2026, unidentified boats and vessels belonging to Libyan authorities, including Libyan Coast Guard patrol vessels, have approached SAR NGO ships at high speed and subsequently followed or “shadowed” them in International waters, sometimes for several hours – at times instructing them to “go North” or to maintain a Heading of “000°”. 

This growing insecurity is not only a perception shared among SAR NGOs. In May 2026, just days before the shooting of rescue vessel Sea-Watch 5, the German Flag state authority applied SOLAS/ISPS Security Level 2 to the entire Libyan Search and Rescue Region for German-flagged vessels, explicitly warning that NGO vessels entering the Libyan SAR zone “operate in dangerous waters”.

EU support funds a violent system and denies responsibility for its consequences 

The attack against the Ocean Viking should have been a turning point. 

It should have triggered an independent investigation, meaningful accountability, and a suspension of support to the actors implicated. Instead, the year since the attack has seen continued threats, an increasingly hostile operational environment, and further expansion of European cooperation with Libyan actors on deterrence and containment. 

After the attack, SOS MEDITERRANEE has strengthened onboard safety measures to protect our crew, survivors and the ship. We have adapted our standard operating procedures and engaged in bilateral discussions with authorities across the region to ensure de-escalation and risk reduction, but humanitarian risk management alone cannot address the lawlessness that reigns in the Central Mediterranean. 

Therefore, our pursuit of accountability continues on every front. We have exchanged with EU officials, including the Commission and Parliament, launched formal complaints, engaged UN bodies such as Special Procedures, the Panel of Experts on Libya and the Security Council’s Libya Sanctions Committee. We have also publicly called, alongside other civil society organisations, on the EU to suspend cooperation with Libyan authorities. 

Despite mounting threats at sea and an uphill battle for accountability amid opaque funding streams and inaccessible complaint mechanisms, the past twelve months have only strengthened our determination to continue saving lives and documenting abuses at sea. We have launched the Albatross aerial monitoring mission and continued to expose the human cost of EU deterrence policies. The Ocean Viking returned to sea as soon as repairs were completed, and her crew continues to rescue people today. 

Still, the harrowing reality is that at least 910 people have died or gone missing in the Central Mediterranean this year alone. Just a few days ago, Albatross spotted 17 bodies floating at sea over the Course of a few days, the latest sign of what may be another invisible shipwreck. European authorities have the resources to detect and respond to distress cases, and to recover and identify the deceased when lives are lost at sea. Each body found is a person with a name, a story, and loved ones waiting for answers. No one should disappear this way, nor should these deaths become a normal part of life at Europe’s gates. 

One year on, humanitarian rescue organisations remain at sea and in the air because people across and beyond Europe to refuse to let the Mediterranean become a vacuum of international law, accountability and basic humanity.