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TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian boat carrying around 40 African migrants has been stranded off the country’s coast without aid for more than a week after authorities refused to let them disembark there, the Red Crescent said on Monday.

Monji Slim, an official of the Tunisian Red Crescent, said the authorities had argued that Malta or Italy should accept the migrants. The Tunisian interior ministry declined to comment.

Slim told Reuters the boat was stuck 12 miles off the coast. “The African migrants at sea are in a bad condition after the vessel’s captain refused to receive aid to pressure the Tunisian authorities to receive them, but no solution has been reached after 11 days at sea.”

It was not clear from where the migrants had originally set off before they were rescued by the Tunisian vessel.

The new Italian government has closed its ports to charity ships operating in the Mediterranean, saying the European Union must share the burden of accepting the hundreds of migrants who are plucked from waters each month, mostly off the Libyan coast.

Rome called this month for migrant centres to be set up in Africa to stop a tide of asylum-seekers fleeing toward western Europe. Tunisia has rejected this proposal.

At least 80 migrants died when their boat sank off the Tunisian coast last month, one of the worst migrant boat accidents in the North African country of recent years.

Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as the Libyan coast guard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.

KIGALI, July 23 (Xinhua) — Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, agreed here on Monday to further promote bilateral cooperation in a bid to bring more benefits to the Chinese people, the Rwandan people and the African people.

The two leaders hailed the growth of bilateral ties over the past 47 years since the establishment of diplomatic relationship.

Xi recalled his meeting with Kagame in Beijing in March 2017, when they reached extensive consensus on promoting bilateral relations and friendly cooperation.

Such consensus has helped bring China-Rwanda ties to a fast track of development.

Beijing is willing to work with Kigali to transform bilateral traditional friendship into concrete benefits to the two countries and the two peoples, and turn a new chapter in their friendly cooperative relations, Xi said.

China welcomes Rwanda’s participation in the international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and encourages more Chinese investment in Rwanda to help advance the African country’s industrialization and modernization, Xi said.

Xi arrived in Kigali on Sunday for a state visit to Rwanda, the first by a Chinese head of state to the African country.

LONDON, July 23 (Xinhua) — Three men have been arrested after a three-year-old boy was seriously injured in a targeted acid attack in Worcester, England, the police said Monday.

West Mercia Police said three men, aged 22, 25 and 26 respectively, were arrested in London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. The motive for the attack is so far unclear.

The boy was in a pushchair when he was “deliberately attacked” at a retail shop in Worcester on Saturday afternoon. He was treated for serious burns to his arm and face, before being discharged from hospital on Sunday afternoon.

The long-term implications of his injuries are unknown, according to the police.

The acid attack shocked local communities as well as the media nationwide.

Britain has one of the highest rates of acid attacks per capita in the world, according to Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI). It claims the country does not have “tight controls on acid sales” or “legislation specific to acid attacks”.

ASTI’s figures, quoting the police, reveal the number of recorded attacks has increased nearly three-fold from 228 recorded crimes in 2012 to 601 attacks in 2016.

Last year was widely regarded as the worst ever with more than 400 incidents reported in the six months to April 2017 alone.

There are plans to further restrict the sale of corrosive substances, but the attacks are still on the rise.

Criminologists believe gang members may be swapping guns and knives for acid as a weapon of choice because possession is hard to monitor but its impact on victims can be devastating.