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Manila Bulletin devider World devider Gabon ferry disaster toll rises to 26 dead ​

Gabon ferry disaster toll rises to 26 dead ​

Published Mar 20, 2023 11:45 pm
LIBREVILLE, Gabon - The toll from this month's ferry disaster off the coast of Gabon has risen to 26 dead after two more bodies were recovered on Monday, the public prosecutors office said. The toll update came 11 days after the ferry, carrying 161 passengers and crew from the capital Libreville to the oil town of Port-Gentil, went down at night ten kilometres (six miles) from shore. Eleven passengers remain missing, the prosecutor said. Gabon's transport minister resigned over the tragedy and 33 people have been arrested under a criminal investigation. Those detained include officials at the ministry of transport, the merchant marine and the vessel's owner, Royal Cost Marine. The ongoing search for those missing "led to the discovery of two male bodies on Monday," prosecutor Andre Patrick Roponat told state television station Gabon Premiere. The previous day's toll was 24 dead and 13 missing. Many survivors of the ferry accident have said they received negligible help or guidance from the crew.  Some spent hours at sea clinging onto inflatable rafts before they were rescued by a flotilla of motorised canoes and a supply barge for the oil industry.
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