A deluge of disasters seems to be on the increase and very recent occurrences appear to be dwarfing global efforts at reducing the unfortunate happenings, especially today when the globe marks the International Day for Disaster Reduction. On Friday, the anguish continued when a boat carrying hundreds of passengers along the Niger River in central Mali capsized, and nearly 200 people remain unaccounted for hours later.
Konna Mayor Sory Diakite told The Associated Press that 20 bodies had been recovered by midday. At least 400 passengers were believed to have been onboard the vessel, though only 210 survivors had been counted, he said.
Family members in the capital of Bamako said they had received confirmation of the accident as well.
“The boat sank around 8 p.m. between Mopti and Konna,” said Abouri Djittey, a resident of Bamako. “It was a survivor who called me around 9 p.m. to tell me that my pregnant daughter and her friend had both drowned.”
The boat was traveling to the northern town of Timbuktu when it capsized, on Friday, about seven kilometers (4 miles) from Konna, Diakite said.
“For the moment, the conditions of what exactly happened are not known,” he said.
In another development, at least 10 children were believed to have drowned when a boat carrying around 250 migrants capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, on Friday, following a shipwreck last week which left more than 300 dead.
Authorities said 221 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation following the incident about 60 miles (100 km) south of the island.
However, the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported that around 50 dead bodies were sighted, 10 of which were children.
The capsizing of the boat occurred in waters where Malta had search and rescue responsibilities.
The coastguard received a satellite phone call from the boat and was able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates.
A Maltese armed forces aircraft spotted the wreckage initially and asked for Italy’s help. The boat was spotted in difficulty by a Maltese military plane at around 1400 GMT, which dropped a liferaft.
Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, told a news conference in Valletta that there were indications that at least 27 people had died ‘and the number is expected to rise, possibly drastically’.
He said 150 survivors were rescued aboard a Maltese ship. An Italian patrol boat had another 56 survivors, while a fishing boat had 15, said Cmdr. Marco Maccaroni of the Italian navy.
‘This is not just another wake-up call for Europe. This is the time for action,’ Muscat said, adding that he had spoken to Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta to discuss the latest disaster.
‘This is a European problem, not a problem for Italy or Malta only.’
In a separate incident, 12 migrants were killed when a boat sank off the Egyptian coast also on Friday, leaving 116 survivors.
The Egyptian navy responded to a distress call near the city of Alexandria, the official news agency said, adding that 72 Palestinians, 40 Syrians, and four Egyptians survived the shipwreck.
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