Abidjan – A boat overturned during a church outing for Easter on a lagoon near the city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, killing 12 children and teenagers, a government minister told AFP Tuesday.
“Twelve bodies have been recovered and are being taken to the morgue,” said Sports Minister Adje Silas Metch, who went to the site of the accident that happened late Monday.
The bodies are “of children and adolescents,” he said, aiing that one was a youngster who was not from the church but had joined the boat crossing.
A police report seen by AFP confirmed the death toll at twelve, adding that six teenagers had been rescued.
According to a survivor’s account to the police, the accident “happened because of the excessive speed of their dugout canoe, which caused sixteen children to fall into the lagoon”.
The person said the person in charge of the canoe saved four children from drowning.
Young people from the village of Tiaha had gone to another village to take part in the “Galilee” event to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The outing was organised by a Methodist church in Tiaha, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the economic capital, Abidjan, Gerard Gbato, deputy chief of the Dabou police district, told AFP.
“It was on the way back that the tragedy happened. The canoe’s engine stopped at one point, the canoe overturned,” he said.
It is possible the boat was overloaded, he added.
Police have opened an investigation.
Gbato said that such dugout canoes with an engine were commonly used by the local community.
The lagoon winds between the districts of Abidjan and the towns surrounding the metropolis of more than six million inhabitants.
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Picture: X/@runic_reindeers
Source: AFP
