MV Le Joola, nicknamed Africa’s Titanic because of its “ill-fate” was a Senegalese government-owned ship that capsized and sunk off the coast of The Gambia on 26th September 2002, with 1,863 dead and 64 survivors, including only one woman. It is recorded to be the second-worst non-military disaster in maritime history, surpassing the ill-fated Titanic.
Most of those who died were children because of football teams made up of kids from 7 to 16 years were also on board.
Joola was launched in Germany on the 22nd March, 1990 and was completed on 12th November, 1990. It was 260 ft 10 inches long and was supposed to carry 536 people, 35 cars and 44 crew members.
The ship was plying the route from Ziguinchor in the Casamance region to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, when it ran into a violent storm, farther out to sea than it was licensed to sail.
The estimated 2,000 passengers aboard (about half of whom lacked tickets) would have amounted to nearly four times the ship's design load. The large numbers sleeping on-deck (and thus above its center of buoyancy) added further instability. Rescue operations did not start for several hours.
A government inquiry principally blamed negligence, and accusations were levelled at both the then Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade and prime minister Mame Madior Boye.
Sadly, not much is heard and known about the Tragedy of Joola, and this is always the fate of Africa.
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: The Tragedy of Africa’s Joola, the Deadliest, Maritime Accident than the Titanic, 1,863 Dead){kind=link}
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