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700 Feared Dead in Senegal Ship Disaster
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| Senegalese women wait for news of loved ones |
DAKAR,
September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least 350 people
are known dead and about the same number remain missing after the
sinking of a ferry off west Africa, including nationals from at least
10 countries, the prime minister’s office said.
Senegal’s
Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye said 63 people among the 796 aboard
the ill-fated Le Joola had survived the shipwreck last Thursday,
September 26, but the chances of finding any more survivors were
“slim” in one of the world’s worst maritime disasters, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Most
of the passengers were Senegalese, but at least 45 were from other
countries, sailing from Ziguinchor, the main town of the southern
Senegalese province of Casamance, towards the capital Dakar.
Boye’s
office said in a statement late Saturday, September 28, that the
passengers included 20 from Guinea-Bissau, 10 from France, five
Spaniards, two Belgians, two Dutch citizens, two Swiss, two Nigerians,
one Lebanese and one from Burkina Faso.
Some
350 bodies have been found, of which about 40 were taken to Dakar, but
most were taken to Banjul, the Gambian capital, which is closer to the
site of the disaster.
Gambia’s
territory straddles the Gambia River and juts into Senegal, largely
cutting off southern Casamance Province from the rest of the country.
About
60 bodies have already arrived in Banjul, and another 250 were
expected overnight, the Gambian navy said.
Boye,
speaking at Dakar’s main hospital on Saturday, said 63 survivors
have been found, but she held out little hope that rescuers would find
any more.
“Divers
are at the scene... Perhaps there are still chances of finding
survivors, but they are slim.”
President
Abdoulaye Wade blamed the tragedy on “an accumulation of errors.”
“The
responsibility of the state is obvious," he told a crowd of
several hundred angry Senegalese in Dakar.
“It
has been established that the boat was overcrowded,” Wade said,
adding that people had been allowed on without tickets. “(The boat)
was too high in the water, too slow.”
Wade
said the state would compensate the families of victims. “I
understand their anger, their pain.”
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy
and sent his condolences to the government, families and friends of
the victims, his spokesman said.
The
Senegalese press has been quick to criticize the government about the
seaworthiness of the ship, which tipped over as it was being lashed by
winds and heavy rains.
“Criminal
negligence,” the Sud newspaper declared in a front-page
headline. The Joola, which had returned to service earlier this month
after a year of repairs, “should never have taken to the sea.”
The
paper said some passengers had noticed that the boat was unbalanced
from the start of the journey.
Another
Dakar-based newspaper, Walfadjri, said the tragedy had been
caused by negligence and technical failings affecting the engines -
one of which had been repaired from salvaged parts while the other was
still being run in.
The
paper also blamed overcrowding - after marine officials said the Joola
had been designed to carry only 550 people - and condemned the
government’s decision to return the Joola to service as “criminal
populism.”
“The
water rose very fast and in barely five minutes it had sunk,” said
one survivor Ousmane Keita, who had clung to a life jacket until help
arrived.
The
government earlier this month showed off the boat’s return to
service and on Friday, September 27, insisted that its condition was
“not in any doubt.”
But
even the pro-government Soleil newspaper joined in the
criticism.
If
the Joola was incapable of traveling in high winds, the paper said,
“it should not have been at sea.”
The
Joola served as an important link between Dakar and Casamance, which
lie on opposite sides of Gambia’s narrow territory and the river of
the same name.
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