Monitoring Desk
LIBREVILLE: The number of persons believed missing in a ferry disaster off the coast of Gabon has reached 34 following a reassessment, with the death toll also rising to three.
At least one child and two others have been found dead since the Esther Miracle — a mixed-use freight and passenger’s vessel that travelled between the oil town of Port-Gentil and the capital Libreville — sank in the wee hours of Thursday not away from the coast, according to authorities.
The number of crew and passengers aboard the ship was initially believed to be 151 people, but that figure was revised to 161 persons on Friday evening.
“So far 124 people have been rescued, and three dead bodies have been found, while 34 people are still missing as the search continues,” Libreville deputy public prosecutor Loic Mangongo told Gabon Premiere public television channel.
Gabon ferry disaster: search continues for missing persons
Mangongo did not explain how the ten other missing people had been left out of the initial count.
Three more persons have also been rescued from the wreck, though authorities did not reveal the circumstances in which they were found.
With strong currents in the Gulf of Guinea where the ferry sank, the chances of finding more survivors, or even dead bodies, so long after the disaster is dwindling.
Experts were sent to the sinking site on Friday morning — near the entrance to the bay on which Libreville is situated — where the water is around 30 meters deep.
Libreville public prosecutor Andre Patrick Roponat said that an inquiry had been initiated to see whether negligence, poor maintenance, or “factors beyond human control” were responsible for the accident.
Pending the probe’s outcome, the Gabonese government has suspended overnight passenger ship voyages until March 31 and has ordered an audit of all vessels “dedicated to passenger transport” in the country.
