Yasmin Ibrahim Elzanaty, a lawyer from Egypt, was working as a cultural mediator on a rescue ship a week ago, when shots were fired “right next to me” as the vessel sailed in international waters off Libya.Everyone on board was “terrified”, she told Al Jazeera. “They were shaking … They had only just come out of a s***** situation in Libya. It was really, really bad.”Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe shots were fired by armed men on a Libyan coastguard patrol boat in waters north of the North African country’s coast at 11am on May 11.“First, a single shot was fired, followed by a burst of approximately 10 to 15 further shots – without any warning,” according to Sea-Watch, which said the crew and rescued survivors “feared for their lives”.The crew on board said the coastguard then attempted to seize the German-flagged rescue vessel and force it towards Libya.“Nobody expects to rescue people and then get shot at. I could see the boat extremely close; it was too close,” said Elzanaty.Thirty crew members from countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Egypt were on board, as well as 90 people rescued from a boat in distress, which had departed Libya in the early hours that morning.As she was the only Arabic speaker on board, Elzanaty negotiated with the attackers.“Even when we were …
