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Bissau bans open boats until shipwreck probe ends

13 Jan 2009 19:05:46 GMT
Source: Reuters

BISSAU, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau temporarily banned travel by open boats to and from its offshore islands on Tuesday after a wooden craft sank in bad weather at the weekend, and local authorities said another had capsized a day earlier.

Authorities on Pecixe Island said on Tuesday that only four out of 71 of people were known to have survived when their pirogue, or open boat, capsized at the weekend while crossing to Biombo, a port on the mainland of the tiny West African country.

Wooden-built pirogues are widely used for fishing and transport around Africa, and many people in Guinea-Bissau rely on them to get between the country's many offshore islands and the mainland.

"It has been confirmed that 71 people, without lifejackets, were on board a boat built for 60 people," said Raimundo Ca, a local official on Pecixe Island. Overcrowding and poor maintenance are often a factor in pirogue sinkings.

Port officials and local media had said on Monday that around 45 people, including 12 Muslim leaders, were missing and one body had been recovered after the sinking.

In a notice published in Tuesday's newspapers, the Transport Ministry imposed a temporary ban on maritime transport using pirogues until the Biombo shipwreck had been fully investigated.

Local authorities in the inland region of Bafata said eight people, mainly women, were missing after the pirogue they were travelling in capsized on a river on Monday, also during bad weather. Two others on board escaped. (Reporting by Alberto Dabo; Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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