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Senegal president: 'Ferry errors'
From CNN Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault
DAKAR, Senegal (CNN) -- The president of Senegal has admitted "many, many mistakes" were made that led to the sinking of a state-run ferry that killed more than 1,000 people. Abdoulaye Wade said on Tuesday he believed the sinking -- reported to be Africa's deadliest ferry disaster -- resulted from human negligence. "There will be prosecutions, of course," he said. Wade also said that the government intends to compensate the families of victims, "adopt" their children and provide for their education. The ferry La Joola flipped over Thursday in the Atlantic off Gambia. The government has said the death toll is expected to be 1,034, but Wade said apparently infants and children under eight years old had not been counted and the toll could go higher. The ferry was built to carry 550 passengers. Only 65 people are confirmed to have survived. Wade acknowledged that the ship, which was run by the navy, was not meant to be operated on the open sea, but was supposed to have remained on a lake. The accident happened at about 11 p.m. on Thursday as the ship ran into a storm on its way from Casamance to Dakar. Fishermen and villagers prepared to bury bodies on Tuesday, as scores of corpses washed towards the shore. Hundreds more victims remain where they died, inside the ferry. Divers said decay after five days in the 30 centigrade (85 Fahrenheit) Atlantic waters made removal of intact victims impossible. Many of the victims survived for hours in the overturned ship, said rescue divers who described scenes of horror in air pockets that had kept the vessel afloat.
The first fishermen to reach the ferry, fully four hours after the accident, spoke of survivors inside fighting for their lives. "There were people screaming or hitting on windows" when fishermen arrived, said el Ali, head diver at a Dakar scuba centre who led the search. "When I dove in, I saw bodies everywhere," many huddled near air pockets, The Associated Press reported el Ali, whose 16-diver team took about 17 hours to arrive by boat from Dakar, as saying. "We saw bodies floating by the hundreds, the hundreds, the hundreds." About 150 military personnel, fishermen and rescue divers from Senegal, neighbouring Gambia and former colonial power France took part in the recovery. Gambian and Senegalese authorities said they had retrieved more than 360 bodies from inside the ferry, before decomposition made recovery of intact victims impossible. "I want to use this opportunity to tell the families that I'm sorry we couldn't bring everyone out," El Ali said in Dakar, breaking into sobs. With Senegalese still scanning photos and lists of the dead for what at times were entire missing families, angry questions built over why the disaster happened.
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