Senegal ferry disaster - 1800 killed

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Inna LillahI waInna Ilaihi rajioon.

This is a terrible human tragedy, and are prayers are with the victims families and friends.

Senegal mourns ferry victims

DAKAR, Senegal – Senegal is observing three days of mourning for up to 700 people feared killed when a passenger ferry overturned in a storm. Le Joola, a state-run Senegalese ferry, capsized side shortly before midnight on Thursday. Media reports said it was carrying 796 passengers and crew even though it was designed to bear fewer than 600.

Only 60 people are known to have escaped, clinging to the vessel for two hours before fishing boats rescued them. Throughout Friday dive teams recovered bodies and believe the corpses of hundreds of others remain trapped inside the ferry, which was floating on its side in the water. Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine centre told the Associated Press: “Now, I’m afraid, it’s a matter of recovering bodies.”

As search teams brought back the first of the bodies so far recovered on Saturday, survivors spoke of the moment disaster struck. “It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said one survivor, Senegalese Moussa Ndong, speaking from his hospital ward. “The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable – in just three minutes, the boat went down.” So far, 41 bodies have been recovered, all believed to be Senegalese although two Europeans – their country of origin not known – were among them, military police commandant Matar Kane told AP. The 79 metre-long Joola had recently returned into service after long repair.

Some witnesses claimed it already had been listing heavily on one side when it headed out from the southern Senegalese region of Casamance, bound for Dakar. Senegal Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye said: "The boat underwent a technical inspection on September 23. "I want to say, according to the information we have at this time, it was the rain and the wind, natural phenomenon, following a storm, and the boat capsized. “For the moment, the condition of the boat is not suspected.”

Frigate captain El H. Habibou Faye said: "Concerning the conditions, the circumstances of the accident, it was completely due to bad weather, technical problems cannot be blamed. "The crew of this ship was hand-picked by the national marines. “The commander of the ship had extensive experience, 21 years of service, and he also was hand-picked to command this boat. The national marines would not pick just anyone to serve on this ship.” Le Joola was constructed in Germany and was launched in 1990.

Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, who cut short a trip to France, has pledged a full investigation.

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Very sad indeed! :(
So many people died and its not even in the headline news here in USA.
700 is alot of people.

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This is awful :teary3:

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heard about it on BBC. it's awful. what the families' victims must be going through, i can't imagine.

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Prayers are with them and their fams

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Sad, 700 is a large number!!

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Some basic facts about Senegal that I picked up.

Full country name: Republic of Senegal

**Background:**Independent from France in 1960, Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982. However, the envisaged integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. Despite peace talks, a southern separatist group sporadically has clashed with government forces since 1982. Senegal has a long history of participating in international peacekeeping.

Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

Area: 196,190 sq km (slightly smaller than South Dakota)

Population: 10,284,929 (July 2001 est.)

Capital city: Dakar (pop 2 million)

Ethnic groups: Wolof 43.3%, Pular 23.8%, Serer 14.7%, Jola 3.7%, Mandinka 3%, Soninke 1.1%, European and Lebanese 1%, other 9.4%

Religions: Muslim 92%, indigenous beliefs 6%, Christian 2% (mostly Roman Catholic)

Languages: French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka

Government type: republic under multiparty democratic rule

President: Aboulaye Wade

Prime Minister: Mrs Madior Boye

GDP: purchasing power parity - $16 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $1,600 (2000 est.)

Major industries: agricultural and fish processing, phosphate mining, petroleum refining, construction materials

Major trading partners: France 17%, India 17%, Italy 12%, Spain 6%, Mali 6%, Cote d’Ivoire 4%

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sg.html

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I saw the coverage on BBC. This ship wasnt like one of those low tech boats in pak. It had everything. They still dont know what the caus was.

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Senegal disaster ferry ‘carried 1,000’, BBC, 29 September 2002

Senegalese authorities have revealed that more than 1,000 people were on the ship that capsized on Thursday off the coast of Gambia.
The prime minister’s office said about 200 passengers and crew who had boarded the ferry at a second stop had not been counted originally.

Officials now say 1,034 people - nearly double the boat’s official capacity - were on the overcrowded state ferry Joola when it overturned in bad weather. Only 64 survivors have been found and everyone else is feared to be dead. Anger is mounting in Senegal against the government, which has accepted responsibility for the tragedy.

Grieving families have been gathering in the city hall of the capital, Dakar, where pictures of the remains were put on display by the Senegalese authorities. They are also trying to establish the identities of the more than 350 bodies recovered so far. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has said the state bears responsibility for the disaster.

Facing angry crowds in the capital, Dakar, he said he believed there had been “an accumulation of errors”, which resulted in the disaster. Mr Wade said it had been established that the ship was overloaded - and the state would compensate the victims’ families.

The ferry, named the Joola, was travelling from Ziguinchor, the main town of the southern Senegalese province of Casamance, to Dakar when the tragedy occurred. Mr Wade said people had been allowed on without tickets to the ferry, which had a capacity of 550 passengers.

Questions have also been raised about maintenance, as the Joola had only recently resumed service after undergoing repairs. Jean-Marie Diatta, anxiously waiting for news of his relatives, told the BBC he blamed the tragedy on negligence. He said an earlier sailing from Ziguinchor had also experienced problems, with one of the ship’s motors damaged in a storm.

“When that damage became clear, the ship should have been put out of commission,” said Mr Diatta. “What we are seeing now is the result of irresponsibility.”

Senegal’s independent press has also been strongly critical of the government. “Criminal negligence”, the Sud daily newspaper declared in a front-page headline. The Joola “should never have taken to the sea,” it said. Most of those missing are Senegalese nationals, along with a number of foreigners from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau and Gambia - as well as French, Spanish and Swiss nationals.

Scores of bodies - many of them children - are reported to have been recovered from the River Gambia and transported to the Gambian capital, Banjul. The government has declared three days of national mourning. Survivors said disaster struck in a matter of minutes.

“Everything happened so quickly. The boat overturned in less than five minutes,” said Moulay Badgi. “I heard the crying of the children and it was terrible.”

Survivors stayed on top of the capsized boat for two hours, until fishing boats arrived to pluck them off. “It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath,” said another survivor, Moussa Ndong.

Travelling by boat is a popular mode of transport between Dakar and Ziguinchor because a civil war has made the route by road treacherous.

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It's more than a thousand dead...that's what I heard......:(

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A total of 1034 persons were on board and only 64 people have been rescued alive, meaning that upto 970 people have been killed in this huge disaster. Some 350 dead bodies have been found so far.

The boat was was well overloaded, about twice its capacity and that seems to have been the cause of this tragedy?

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This is an interesting article on the ferry disaster. Just providing excerpts here, follow the link to access the article in its entirety.

A distant disaster, Ian Mayes, 7 October 2002, The Guardian

A little over a week ago we carried at the foot of page 15 of the main paper a report headed: 750 feared dead as ferry sinks. The report itself amounted to 320 words. Two days later, again on page 15, we carried the only other reference to it in the printed Guardian, a news brief (47 words) with the heading: Ferry death toll nears 1,000.

This prompted a reader to ask, “How does the Guardian decide the relative value of news stories? [These] people, presumably black and relatively poor, died in a horrific ferry disaster off the coast of west Africa … How would the substitution of ‘white’ ‘wealthy’ ‘cruise ship disaster’ and ‘coast of Florida/ Italy’ … affect the level and nature of coverage in the paper (as well as other media)?”

…] The implication in the reader’s question is that whatever the factors that determined the coverage and presentation, racial attitudes played a defining role. Certainly one does not have to think long about the kind of coverage the disaster would have got if any of the reader’s suggested substitutions were made. A senior editor pointed to the recent extensive media coverage given to an engine fire on a ferry in the North sea where there was no loss of life. The Zeebrugge ferry disaster of March 6 1987, when the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized with the loss of 194 lives, was mentioned. Roughly five times that number died off the coast of west Africa. The question the reader is asking is: do their lives have a different value? The answer may be no but the signal sent out sometimes says yes.

It is not easy. The editors involved in news judgments of this kind say they are the most difficult decisions they have to take, never absolute and very often controversial. Columns could be filled with apparent anomalies (closer to home, consider the attention given to a train crash against that given to road accidents which cumulatively kill a much greater number of people).

One assessment that editors must make is the degree to which readers of the newspaper will identify with the victims and relatives. Will the reports have relevance for them? Will interest diminish with distance (not considered an impediment in the case of the Australian bush fires)? Is access a problem? Senegal is a former French colony. Did that affect our level of interest? Does the newspaper have a duty to raise awareness - as in cases where relief efforts follow?

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Many more people died in this distaster than first feared.

*More than 1,800 people died in the September sinking of a state-run ferry, the prime minister said Monday — an increase of nearly 700 deaths from the count issued by an earlier government inquiry. *

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This happened last September and I've just learned about it today by reading this thread. I guess that says a lot.

1800 dead is a tragedy that deserved wider coverage.

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This ferry was only designed for 600 people,whoever is responsible for the ship should be tried as murderers.As Mr. xtreem pointed out this happened last Sep and i also only read about it here.
I remember the Herald of Free Enterprise,it was on the tv and in the papers for ages,at least here in Britain.

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God 1800 people dead! That is I'm sure a great national trauma for Senegal and Africa, but its so disheartening to realise that we have heard very little of this in the months since this occured.

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I would not have even known about this, if it were not for this thread. Sad and shows us the relative cost of human lives.

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ME too I only know after coming here to this thread....:(...thanks for updating this thread...