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About 30 people drowned after a boat travelling from Nigeria to Gabon capsized off the coast of Cameroon in high seas, Cameroonian state radio has reported.
About 30 people drowned after a boat travelling from Nigeria to Gabon capsized off the coast of Cameroon in high seas, Cameroonian state radio has reported. "The discovery was made by Cameroonian fishermen ... As they were getting ready to board their canoes they sighted a boat in bad shape in the far distance," state radio said.
The fishermen managed to save around 30 other passengers, who were from West African countries including Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Mali, but had to abandon their search for survivors because of rough seas, the report said. The radio said 30 had drowned, but did not make clear how it had arrived at that figure. It did not say how many people had been on board the boat.
Those who were rescued from the boat, which capsized late yesterday, had been taken to hospital in Cameroon's southern port town of Kribi.
There have been several shipping disasters in recent years in the Gulf of Guinea, where passengers often travel in overloaded vessels lacking communications. A group of 68 children thought to be victims of child trafficking were rescued from a sinking ship off Cameroon in 2001. At least 280 people drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized during a trip from Nigeria to Gabon in 1998. - Reuters