A pregnant woman and eight others drowned when the boat they were travelling in capsized on the Dakar river in the Northern Region leaving only four of the 13 people on board to be rescued.
According to DSP Benjamin Aniah of the Nanumba North District Police Command, the deceased included three women and their children.
“Divers managed to retrieve nine of the thirteen, but before they could do that, all the nine had passed on. Three of them were women with their children, making six people, and an elderly man, a pregnant woman and a young lady. They were all from a community called Ujadooâ€, he told Citi FM, adding that the bodies had already been retrieved from the water when rescue workers and staff of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) got to the scene.
The bodies of the victims have already been released to the families, although an official autopsy had not been conducted. DSP Aniah stated that, due to the level of decomposition it seemed appropriate to allow the families to bury them.
“When we got that piece of information, quickly I mobilized personnel from the military, from NADMO and medical staff and then we moved to that place. The medical officers examined the bodies and they certified the bodies lifeless and were handed over to their families for burial, he said.
"The bodies should have been brought to the hospital mortuary for the processes to be done but the state in which they were suggested that they were in a state of decomposition and so we thought it wise for the doctor to go with us to certify the bodies and release them to their respective families for burial, which has since been done. I believe that by now, the bodies have already been buriedâ€, he added.
Â
In January, one person died while hundreds were rescued in February in two different accidents.