{"id":1959,"date":"2009-09-10T15:05:37","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T19:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2009-09-10T15:05:37","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T19:05:37","slug":"no-lifejackets-on-s-leone-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=1959","title":{"rendered":"‘No lifejackets’ on S Leone boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fishing activities have stopped as a search operation continues<\/em><\/p>\n

The overcrowded boat that capsized off Sierra Leone with more than 150 people on board was not carrying lifejackets, the information minister says.<\/p>\n

“The rules were violated, the boat did not carry lifejackets and people died,” said Ibrahim Ben-Kargbo.<\/p>\n

The vessel with an outboard motor was reported to be carrying many children returning from their school holidays.<\/p>\n

The head of naval rescue mission says 36 people have been saved and 10 bodies have been recovered.<\/p>\n

“In addition local fishermen and other volunteers are all searching frantically at the scene of the disaster in the hope of rescuing more bodies,” police spokesman Ibrahim Samura stated.<\/p>\n

Missing children<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Mr Ben-Kargbo described the efforts more as a “recovery” mission now as hopes of finding other survivors are slim.<\/p>\n

The boat was travelling a sea route of about 65km (40 miles) along the coast from the town of Shenge to the village of Tombo near the capital, Freetown.<\/p>\n

It capsized not long after it left Shenge near Plantain Island.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Lansana Fofana in Freetown says the vessel has not been found and all fishing activities near Tombo have stopped.<\/p>\n

\"boat<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0The village of Tombo is in a state of mourning as relatives wait for news.<\/p>\n

One man had nine children on the boat who were returning to start the new school term.<\/p>\n

The boat’s owner has not been found to comment on the accident.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant Suma, who is in charge of the rescue mission, said he suspected the boat may have been carrying up to 200 passengers.<\/p>\n

Mr Ben-Kargbo said that the cause of the accident seemed to suggest overcrowding.<\/p>\n

“Eyewitnesses in Shenge said the boat was very small and it was forced to carry a very large amount of people,” he said.<\/p>\n

BBC News<\/address>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fishing activities have stopped as a search operation continues The overcrowded boat that capsized off Sierra Leone with more than 150 people on board was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[699,671,1],"tags":[700,701,702,703,704],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-no-lifejackets","tag-plantain-island","tag-shenge","tag-sierra-leone-boar-capsizes","tag-tombo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}