Boat sinks off Sierra Leone, 30 feared drowned - Reuters

FREETOWN (Reuters) - At least 30 people are feared
drowned after a boat capsized off the coast of Sierra
Leone in bad weather over the weekend, Sierra
Leonean and Guinean authorities said on Wednesday.
The boat was carrying passengers and tonnes of
merchandise between the neighbouring capitals of
Conakry in Guinea and Freetown in Sierra Leone.
Guinean government spokesman Durus Yale Dore said
he had reports of 30 deaths.
Ibrahim Wurie, the head of Sierra Leone's maritime
administration, told journalists about 50 people had
died, though authorities had recovered only two
corpses.
Authorities from both countries said they were not
clear whether the accident happened on Saturday or
Sunday and only heard about it on Wednesday.
Accidents on over-crowded and poorly maintained
boats are relatively common in the region. More than
80 people were killed in Sierra Leone in 2009 when a
boat carrying mostly school children returning from
holiday capsized.

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