Tragic Boat Accident off Southern Somalia

Five passengers survived and 10 died in a tragic boat accident off Southern Somalia. Yesterday's accident of a dhow - a small wooden sailing boat belonging to Somali businessman Ahmed Rashid -, which was used as ferry to carry people and goods from Kismayo to Bur Gavo, caused the death of eight women and two children, coastguards and authorities from the local government confirmed.

The boat had left Kismayo, the Southern Somali port 500 kilometres south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, and was carrying 15 passengers plus lots of basic foodstuff and goods.

The vessel capsized during the trip near the remote location of Barakasi, between the island of Kudah and the coastal village of Bur Gavo. No immediate help was available and until today evening only 6 bodies had been retrieved. Most of the deceased were from one Somali sub-clan from Ras Kiamboni, while the two children are the daughters of a Bajuni man, Lali Shemote, whose Somali wife also drowned.

According to Bajuni captain Bakari Shee Lali, who rescued one small boy, the accident was caused by bad, stormy weather and an overloaded vessel.

Media reports speaking of 14-16 deceased, incl. three children and ten missing out of 40-50 people on the vessel could not be confirmed. However, the loss of ten innocent lives in such an accident is tragic enough, said Sheikh Hassan from the Islamic Administration of Kismayo.

The population of the southern coastal stretch of Somalia, often pounced upon by illegal trawlers from Kenya, is among the poorest of the whole country and especially the Bajuni, a people of Shirazi origin, who were driven off their ancestral islands - the Bajuni Islands - already in 1973 by Russian naval forces, are in constant distress. Many of them already have fled to neighbouring Kenya, from where some gained asylum in the USA and Canada.

Source: Ecoterra Intl, May 15, 2009

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