Friday, September 27, 2002 6:18PM EDT

By NAFI DIOUF, ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - More than 760 people were believed dead Friday after an ocean ferry capsized off West Africa in a fierce gale, with 88 victims recovered and bodies of others spotted trapped inside.

"It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath," said hospitalized survivor Moussa Ndong, who escaped when the ferry capsized Thursday night. He survived by clinging to the side of the vessel for two hours.

"The boat went down so fast. It was so unbelievable - in just three minutes, the boat went down," he said.

Fishing boats and other vessels rescued the 32 survivors, according to Senegal Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye.

The state-owned Joola ferry capsized off Gambia in the Atlantic Ocean about 11 p.m. en route to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from the south of the country. Gambia is a strip-shaped country only a few miles wide and divides north and south Senegal.

The vessel remained in one piece Friday, and still on its side, said Mamadou Diop Thioune, a coordinator of a French-funded marine center whose divers were helping in the search for victims.

Dive teams recovered 88 bodies, Diop said. They spotted a number of corpses through the ferry windows, and believed the still unrecovered passengers and crew to be dead, with their corpses caught inside, he said.

"Now, I'm afraid, it's a matter of recovering bodies," he said.

The first corpses retrieved from the accident were being taken back to the port Friday.

Searchers waited as night fell Friday for the arrival of military divers with equipment to cut into the ferry, he said.

Ndong told The Associated Press by telephone from a hospital in neighboring Gambia that the storm brewed as the ferry made its way north from Senegal's southern district of Casamance.

As the wind built, the boat started tipping to one side, he said. Water rushed into the cabin. When the lights went out, he said, passengers started screaming.

Senegal declared three days of national mourning at midday Friday as the search for victims continued. Boye and other state officials went to the port to be with families.

President Abdoulaye Wade cut short a trip to France. Speaking briefly to reporters upon his return home, he pledged an investigation.

Families and friends rushed to the port in Dakar, sobbing and pounding their heads on walls.

"God have mercy! Pray! Pray everyone!" one woman, waiting with the rest for news of loved ones, pleaded. "Stop crying!"

Later, hundreds of people surrounded the locked gates of navy offices, demanding information about the search and rescue and its results. Among the throng, a woman screamed and tore her hair, sobbing for word of her daughter.

"Tell us whether she's alive," the woman shouted. "Can we please know whether she's alive?"

Ferries are the main way of transportation between north and south Senegal, in part because travel by road is slowed by border checks passing through Gambia. Merchants carrying dried fish, mangos and other goods from verdant Casamance make up many of the usual travelers aboard.

Angry men thronging the port denounced authorities, claiming the ferry had been riding low on one side, and never should have been allowed out of port.

Media reports said the ferry had undergone repairs, and had only recently returned to service after months in dock.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2002

Answers

Sunday, 29 September, 2002, 20:39 GMT 21:39 UK

Senegal disaster ferry 'carried 1,000'

The ferry had nearly double the passengers allowed

Senegalese authorities have revealed that more than 1,000 people were on the ship that capsized on Thursday off the coast of Gambia. The prime minister's office said about 200 passengers and crew who had boarded the ferry at a second stop had not been counted originally.

People tried to identify their relatives from photos of the dead Officials now say 1,034 people - nearly double the boat's official capacity - were on the overcrowded state ferry Joola when it overturned in bad weather.

Only 64 survivors have been found and everyone else is feared to be dead.

Anger is mounting in Senegal against the government, which has accepted responsibility for the tragedy.

Identifying victims

Grieving families have been gathering in the city hall of the capital, Dakar, where pictures of the remains were put on display by the Senegalese authorities.

They are also trying to establish the identities of the more than 350 bodies recovered so far.

[The Joola] should never have taken to the sea Sud newspaper

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has said the state bears responsibility for the disaster.

Facing angry crowds in the capital, Dakar, he said he believed there had been "an accumulation of errors", which resulted in the disaster.

Mr Wade said it had been established that the ship was overloaded - and the state would compensate the victims' families.

The ferry, named the Joola, was travelling from Ziguinchor, the main town of the southern Senegalese province of Casamance, to Dakar when the tragedy occurred.

Mr Wade said people had been allowed on without tickets to the ferry, which had a capacity of 550 passengers.

Questions have also been raised about maintenance, as the Joola had only recently resumed service after undergoing repairs.

Jean-Marie Diatta, anxiously waiting for news of his relatives, told the BBC he blamed the tragedy on negligence.

He said an earlier sailing from Ziguinchor had also experienced problems, with one of the ship's motors damaged in a storm.

"When that damage became clear, the ship should have been put out of commission," said Mr Diatta.

"What we are seeing now is the result of irresponsibility."

Media outrage

Senegal's independent press has also been strongly critical of the government.

Relatives of the victims are furious "Criminal negligence", the Sud daily newspaper declared in a front- page headline. The Joola "should never have taken to the sea," it said.

Most of those missing are Senegalese nationals, along with a number of foreigners from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau and Gambia - as well as French, Spanish and Swiss nationals.

Scores of bodies - many of them children - are reported to have been recovered from the River Gambia and transported to the Gambian capital, Banjul.

The government has declared three days of national mourning.

'It was terrible'

Survivors said disaster struck in a matter of minutes.

Distraught relatives crowded the quayside in Dakar "Everything happened so quickly. The boat overturned in less than five minutes," said Moulay Badgi.

"I heard the crying of the children and it was terrible."

Survivors stayed on top of the capsized boat for two hours, until fishing boats arrived to pluck them off.

"It was horrible, because we were hearing people screaming from underneath," said another survivor, Moussa Ndong.

Travelling by boat is a popular mode of transport between Dakar and Ziguinchor because a civil war has made the route by road treacherous.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2002