A boat that sank off the Nigerian
coast with up to 166 people on board, killing at least 45, was carrying illegal
immigrants being trafficked to Gabon, survivors interviewed by Reuters said on
Wednesday.
Nigerian authorities were still
searching for survivors from a wooden boat that sank on Friday some 40 nautical
miles offshore on its way from Oron, in Cross Rivers state, to Gabon.
Vincent Aquah, director of the
Cross Rivers State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told a news conference
that a rescue operation had recovered 27 people so far.
He said only nine bodies had been
fished out, although a doctor at a local mortuary told Reuters on Tuesday there
had been 45 bodies brought in from the accident.
Survivor Kive Sani, 27, from
Togo, said he had paid money to a Nigerian "master" to get him a good
job in Gabon. Part of his agreement was that he give the master a portion of
his wages for an indefinite period.
"A huge wave swept onto the
boat and knocked out the engine, then everything started sinking," he
said.
He survived by clinging to an
empty gas cylinder for nearly two days, he said.
Most poor West Africans who risk
their lives each year to seek a better life head for Europe, usually via
Spain's Canary Islands. But Gabon's oil-funded relative prosperity has also
made it a favorite destination.
In July 2008, the bodies of 37
suspected illegal migrants were found dead on the seafront of Gabon's capital
Libreville, after a boat capsized taking the same Nigeria to Gabon route.
With investment from former
colonial ruler France, Gabon was one of the first sub-Saharan African countries
to exploit its crude oil reserves, which have made its 1.5 million people among
the continent's richest on a per capita basis.
But many of the migrants who
arrive find only low paid jobs with little security, and are often indebted to
traffickers.
Hafsat Zakare, 13, a Nigerian
survivor, said many of the people on board were women and children from around
West Africa.
Aquah said belongings recovered
during the rescue mission showed some people on the boat were Ghanaians.
Boat accidents are relatively
common in Africa. As many as 138 people died when an overloaded boat carrying
passengers and goods capsized in rough water on a river in Democratic Republic
of Congo in 2010
0 comments:
Post a Comment