The shipwrecked ship, which was not allowed to carry passengers, had embarked on 138 Monday morning. Only 50 of them were saved.
Le Monde with AFP
The drama assessment rises from day to day. The sinking of a merchandise transport boat northeast of Madagascar Monday made at least 85 deaths, learned the France-Presse agency with the Maritime and Gendarmes, Thursday, December 23. Twenty-one body were found Wednesday.
The shipwrecked ship had embarked on Monday morning 138 passengers on board, of which only 50 were saved, reported the maritime authorities. The wooden cargo boat, which was not allowed to embark passengers, was left of the small town of Antseraka towards Soanierana Ivongo, a hundred kilometers further south, and failed nearby. of its destination.
Most of the people he was carrying were seasonal, who had come to pick clove and returned home for the end of year celebrations. The distance is running in just over two hours by boat, against at least eight by taxi-bush, according to several inhabitants.
National mourning day
According to the first elements of the investigation, “the engine would have had a technical problem,” said Adrien Fabrice Ratsimbazafy, from the Maritime and River Port Agency. “The boat ended up at the mercy of the waves and failed on a reef”, before taking the water.
Monday night, a helicopter, part of the capital, Antananarivo, to go to the shipwreck area, crashed at sea, with the secretary of state to the gendarmerie, General de Gendarmerie Serge GELLÉ. Ejected from the device, Mr Gellae and a gendarme survived, swimming nearly twelve hours to join the shore. Two other gendarmes, whose pilot, are missing.
A mass is planned Thursday for the deceased and the flags are in half of the country. The President of the Malagasy Republic, Andy Rajoelina, had announced Tuesday this national day of mourning to mark the double tragedy of this sinking and this crash.