Drivers honked their car horns and church bells rang out as Sierra Leone on Monday marked a day of mourning for the victims of last week’s ferry disaster, in which at least 200 people drowned.
Flags were lowered to half-mast on public buildings and radio stations played sombre music.
Public buildings remained opened, however, as people marked the day of mourning with local tradition.
Hundreds of people made their way to work wearing black armbands or other black items of clothing. Others wore white, a symbol of mourning in the West African country.
”We are not shutting down any public building but asking people to remember those who have died and to pray for them,” Information Minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said.
”President Ernest Koroma has already sent a message of condolence to all the affected families and would continue to communicate with them,” said the minister, adding that tonnes of food supplies had been sent to victims’ families.
The government has established a task force, led by Vice-President Sam Soumana, to ”thoroughly investigate the cause” of the tragedy, the minister said.
Taxi driver Sullay Koroma reacted as he sat waiting for passengers in central Freetown, listening to solemn music aired from one of the capital’s 25 functional radio stations. ”It is a sad lesson,” he said. ”Government, maritime officials and boat owners need to strictly implement safety measures.”.
Bintu Turay, a market-stall owner who said she had made the sea journey from Shenge to Tombo many times, called for ”a public inquiry to expose those responsible for the disaster so that those who died would be avenged”.
The government has been unable to provide an official death toll.
Survivors of the September 8 disaster said the overloaded wooden ferry went down in minutes after being hit by a storm after leaving the southern fishing village of Shenge for Tombo, on the outskirts of the capital Freetown.
Only 37 people are known to have survived, according to police. Rescue workers were able to recover only 120 bodies.
Estimates of the numbers on board ranged from 268 to more than 300, with the government admitting that many children aboard the vessel, who were heading to Freetown to start the school year, would not have been on the ship’s manifest. — AFP
