8 feared dead after Chinese vessel sinks in Ghana waters
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At least 8 people are feared dead as the Ghana Navy ended its search for survivors on a Chinese vessel that sunk in Ghana’s Western Region.
The Chinese fishing vessel, MV Comforter 2 has sunk along the Elmina – Takoradi marine waters.
Reports indicate that its last known position was 46 nautical miles South of Saltpond.
Information gathered also indicates that 25 crew members were on board including 19 Ghanaians and six Chinese.
The Chinese captain has been confirmed dead. Meanwhile, the body of one person believed to a Chinese who is the captain of the vessel has been retrieved from the vessel with over 20 sailors of both Ghanaian and Chinese nationality aboard.
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The Western Regional Director of the Fisheries Commission, Joseph Yeboah, has confirmed that 16 persons have been rescued.
“The vessel went back to the incident place to search and picked some three more sailors plus the Captain, who was then dead. Nine others were picked up by a canoe and were sent to Elmina and later went to Tema. In all, 15 sailors have been recovered with the Captain dead and others injured. There are 10 more sailors still been searched for now“, he said.
The Western Naval Command has announced that it has ended its search mission for the eight remaining sailors who have been missing.
The Public Relations Officer of the 2-Garrison, Enoch Tetteh Opata, said the Command had to call off its search due to high tide and visibility challenges.
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“We are done with it, it has ended and as I speak with you, we’ve not heard anything about the eight people whether they’ve been washed ashore or not. However, we have our ears on the ground to know wherever they will be washed ashore.
That is what we are monitoring. Night vision probability is a challenge now and so even in the daytime we are not able to get to the bottom or see through the sea, and it means that even in the evening it’s not worth it. You know, the tides are high due to weather conditions and all that, so it has become a challenge, so we need to halt it and monitor wherever they will be washed ashore, but as for the location we can’t tell”, he said.
Source: Africafeeds.com
