Charlotte Observer
Posted on Sun, Sep. 29, 2002
No hope of finding survivors on ferry
180 bodies recovered in ship sunk off Gambia; 730 are believed dead
EDWARD HARRIS
Associated Press
DAKAR, Senegal - Divers smashed the windows of the capsized Senegalese ferry MS Joola on Saturday
and began recovering victims of one of Africa's worst ferry disasters.
At least 180 bodies have been recovered from among more than 730 people believed dead.
Wailing relatives -- some collapsing in grief -- cried Saturday for news of the missing.
Barricades held back crowds who stood vigil by the hundreds overnight at the main naval base in
Dakar, Senegal's capital -- waiting to know, for some, whether whole families had perished.
"I have been waiting 22 hours for information!" Daouda Diot, seeking news of his wife in the ocean
ferry's sinking, shouted at military police who were fending off the distraught family members at
the base.
People in the crowd helped care for women who fell to the ground in the rising anger, tension and
grief.
Some dropped in dead faints or shook uncontrollably -- sobbing and crying of missing mothers and
fathers.
By late afternoon Saturday, divers had pulled at least 180 bodies from the ferry, which turned on
its side, then capsized in a fierce Atlantic Ocean gale Thursday night.
Only 62 among the 796 passengers and crew are known to have survived -- all rescued by fishing
boats in the first hours, after what for some were hours clinging to the overturned hull.
French and Senegalese search planes and vessels converged Saturday in the area of the disaster, in
blue seas under hazy skies.
The MS Joola was on its way to Dakar from Senegal's southern region of Casamance when it capsized
off Gambia, a sliver of a former British colony bordered on three sides by Senegal.
France said it lent a naval rescue plane, a military helicopter and divers and two ships to help
Senegal's military.
After spotting bodies bobbing inside the submerged interior, divers shattered the windows and
began the recovery, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator with a French-funded marine center
whose divers are helping lead the search.
Retrieval was going quickly, Thioune said. Searchers have said they expect to find no one alive.
Most of the dead are believed still trapped in the ferry, caught when it capsized.
Survivors spoke of listening to the screams of those trapped inside.
French diplomats said they believed 12 of their nationals to be aboard. Three Spanish tourists, a
mother and her two children, were missing.
Most of the rest were believed to be Senegalese, many of them traders bearing dried fish, mangoes
or palm oil from Casamance for sale in the capital. Dakar fish peddlers, tears in their eyes,
waited.
Angry Senegalese cited media reports that the ferry, designed for no more than 600 passengers, was
dangerously overcrowded at 796.
The ferry only recently had returned to service after a year in repair. Witnesses claimed it was
listing heavily to one side when it set out Thursday from Casamance.
The tragedy was one of Africa's deadliest maritime disasters.
On May 21, 1996, at least 500 people died in the sinking of a boat on Lake Victoria.
On April 29, 1994, an estimated 300 people drowned when an overloaded ferry traveling from Mombasa
island to Mtongwe on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast capsized when passengers rushed toward the exit
before the ferry docked.
The Senegalese ferry had been the prime means by which many citizens crossed between the north and
south of their country, in part because of the tedium of border checks through Gambia.
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
http://sbc.yahoo.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
