Afrigather Like yearly on September 26 for the reason that horrible evening of 2002, the Senegalese city of Ziguinchor remembers its departed kids.
100 kin of the practically 1,9000 victims of the Le Joola ferry shipwreck, along with officers laid a wreath and took half to a Muslim and a Christian commemorative ceremony, Monday.
Subsequent to round 50 graves in Kantene cemetery emotion may very well be felt.
“2000 lacking, there are not any penalties, there isn’t any accountability, Mamadou Hampathé Sadio, the son of sufferer of the Joola sinking laments. But the households of the victims want it as a result of these accountable should be named, justice should be served for the everlasting remainder of our mother and father.”
Was the capsize as a result of an engine failure, a navigational error, unhealthy climate, poor upkeep and overcrowding — or a mix of all — ? Regardless of a Senegalese inquiry and a French probe launched since 18 French residents died within the tragedy, no clear reply has been givven.
Senegal closed the case in 2003 after concluding an investigation that blamed the captain, unaccounted for for the reason that disaster. French courts additionally dismissed a years-long probe, which discovered proof towards seven Senegalese officers, concluding that Paris didn’t have jurisdiction.
Victims’ associations say greater than 2,000 passengers from greater than a dozen international locations died, and solely 65 survived.
Left with no solutions it’s har to mourn correctly. “Yearly we do the identical factor. We pray at residence. We come right here [Editor’s note: at the cemetery]. We exit with folks, we do the identical factor. We nonetheless want he who’s in paradise, was nonetheless on the earth. That is it. It is actually painful. However what to do? It is laborious. It is laborious.”
Deadliest civilian maritime catastrophe
Le Joola sailed right into a storm off the coast of The Gambia on the best way from Ziguinchor to the capital Dakar. Le Joola, sunk to a depth of 20 metres (66 ft). It’s thought to carry many our bodies.
On September 26, greater than 1,928 folks formally crowded on to the ferry, which had a capability for 536 passengers.A complete of 1,863 folks drowned or have been misplaced — surpassing the Titanic toll of greater than 1,500 some 90 years earlier.
Victims’ associations say greater than 2,000 passengers from greater than a dozen international locations died, and solely 65 survived.
At one other bigger ceremony with a number of hundred folks near the Casamance river from the place Le Joola had departed, the pinnacle of victims’ associations repeated a name for the wreck to be raised.
Senegalese and French victims’ associations have known as for a memorial to be erected. One was promised for 5 years in the past however the web site was nonetheless nowhere close to prepared in Ziguinchor on Monday.
