KAMPALA, April 21 (DPA/EP) –
The number of people who died in the shipwreck this past Friday of a barge with hundreds of people on board in the Mpoko River, in the Central African Republic, rises to 58.
The wooden barge had just left for the town of Mokelo, in the south of the country, when it began to break up in the middle of the river with more than 300 occupants, the Central African media outlet Corbeau News reported.
The director general of Civil Protection, Thomas Djimasse, has estimated that “around fifty bodies” have been recovered after the sinking of the shipwreck in what he describes as a “provisional assessment” pending further updates, according to statements collected by Radio Guira, the station of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MINUSCA).
Civil protection reports indicate that rescue teams did not arrive at the scene of the accident until 40 minutes after the boat capsized and there are still several of its approximately 300 passengers, who were on their way to a funeral, whose whereabouts are unknown.
River transport is widespread in the Central African country, as many roads are in poor condition. But many of the boats are made of wood and are poorly maintained.
The president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has conveyed to the Government and people of the Central African Republic “all his solidarity (…) following the sinking of a whaling ship in the Mpoko River” and has offered his “deepest condolences to the families affected by this terrible tragedy.”
