Boat Sinks In Gabon;10 Dead And 20 Missiing

A boat leaving for oil rich Gabon has reportedly sank leaving at least 10 people dead and 20 people missing.

The boat had left Nigeria and was within 15 minutes of arriving in Gabon’s capital Libreville when it went down late on Tuesday night. Gabonese authorities rescued 23 survivors and the search continued into Friday.

“Last night we had six bodies and since this morning we have found four more, which makes a total of 10 recovered bodies. The immigrants drowned,” said a member of the nautical brigade of Gabon’s national police, who asked not to be named.

Police said the survivors – from Benin, Nigeria and Burkina Faso – claimed to have each paid the boat’s crew up to 500,000 CFA francs ($1,000) to take them to Gabon, where they hoped to find work.

Local newspapers reported that the human traffickers attempted to extort more money from the immigrants and had begun throwing those who could not pay overboard.

Gabonese authorities said they were investigating the cause of the sinking.




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