The Prime Minister of Gabon Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, went on site to the pier of Port Mole. Steve JORDAN / AFP
A sinking of a ferry in Gabon, leaving Libreville to reach Port-Gentil, left at least two dead and 28 missing overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, an investigation has been opened. “At this stage, 121 people have been rescued and we regret two deaths.“, indicated in a video posted on Facebook the Minister Delegate of Transport, Eric Joel Bekale.
“An investigation has been opened by the competent services to determine the causes of this tragedy. The public prosecutor was also seized“, continued the Minister indicating that the research is still in progress and that a psychological care unit has been set up.
Waterway
The Minister specified that the Royal Cost Marine ship, the Esther Miracle, sank “around 3h58 off Libreville“. After the vessel got under way,the crew reported a leak between 3 and 4 a.m.“, said the company Thursday morning on its Facebook page. “This intrusion led to a loss of control of the boat. Authorities have been alerted and paramedics are on scene, passengers are being rescued“, assured the company.
The first survivors arrived at the end of the morning on board motorized canoes, barges or Navy ships, at the Port Mole pier from where the ferry had left with 151 passengers on board, according to an official. port authorities who wished to remain anonymous.
As soon as they arrive, the survivors are taken directly to the ambulances to receive first aid while a large tent has been set up to welcome them, noted an AFP journalist. A young woman was carried on a stretcher under a survival blanket to an ambulance. A firefighter also carried a haggard baby, also wrapped in a blanket, according to an AFP journalist.
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The Prime Minister, Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, and the Minister of the Interior, Lambert Noël Matha, were still on site at midday. Faced with dozens of stretchers lined up on the quay, families, eaten away by anxiety, are kept away. Some people try to climb the barriers that block access to the platforms hoping to see someone close to them.
religious songs
A woman laments and tries to see the pants of a survivor: “I know what pants he wore last night“, she comments, looking desperately through the gates. “At 4am a friend from the police called me to say he had my son and a friend of his on the phone telling him they were sinking“, told AFP Jean-Félix Moungonga who will only be reassured when he sees his son”of [ses] eyes“. Other survivors also disembarked from a barge from the oil logistics company Peschaud which took part in the rescue, to applause and cries of joy.
Barely feet on solid ground, some passengers gathered and knelt on the platform, palms open to the sky, before singing religious songs and thanking God, noted an AFP journalist. “God, Lord, you saved us from the waters, we will make sacrifices for you, thank you Lordshouted a survivor in the middle of the others praying. “I have two parents, my cousin and his wife in the boat. I got a phone call around 3am and they said they were sinking“, tells AFP a woman who wished to remain anonymous. According to the families present, a crisis cell was set up on Thursday morning.
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