No fewer than 58 people who were on their way to a funeral has passed on after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s capital Bangui, the head of civil protection confirmed on Sunday morning.
Speaking to Radio Guira, Thomas Djimasse said; “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies, We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater.”
According to witnesses and videos on social media which was sighted by Africa Today News, New York, the boat was carrying no fewer than than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko river on Friday.
The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief but got into difficulty shortly after setting off. Rescue services arrived 40 minutes after the disaster.
Maurice Kapenya, who was following the boat in a canoe because there was no space on board, said he collected the bodies of some of the victims, including his own sister, with the help of fishermen and residents.
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Some of the injured were evacuated by motorbike taxis. Driver Francis Maka told reporters he had “taken more than 10 people to the community hospital… free of charge, in the face of the tragedy”.
Reporters observed that with civil protection teams no longer on the scene Saturday, families searched for their missing loved ones near the river helped canoe operators they had hired.
In another report, no fewer than 10 people, including nine children have been said to have drowned after a boat capsized Thursday in western India, officials said, with a search on to find more of the missing.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the incident happened in Gujarat state as students were travelling to a picnic organised by their school.
Dozens of people joined a frantic search for survivors around the lake where the boat capsized.