Twelve out of the 17 passengers of a motorized boat, including eight women and four men died on early Tuesday on Lake Aheme.
According to Constant Badet, Deputy Director of the local Police “of the 12 people dead, seven have already been identified and handed over to family members for burial. The remaining five have not yet been identified and with the authorization of the Director of local Health Service, their bodies will be kept at the morgue, pending the arrival of their parents.”
Among the five survivors, there is one baby of three months whose mother drowned. The baby, according to the emergency doctor’s explanation, ingested a lot of water, but “thanks to the pediatric team, his condition is stable.”
According to some testimonies, the capsizing is due to an overload the motorized boat, which left the bank of Bopa Center (Mono town) to sail to Ahouangbo in the district of Kpomasse (Ouidah town), both towns being located in the center of Benin.
Government officials, including the Minister of Health, Benjamin Hounkpatin, went to the scene of the tragedy on Tuesday to pay tribute to the deceased and inquire about the health of the survivors.
UB/cd/fss/abj/APA