Africa-Press – Cape verde. Nine people died and six survivors are receiving medical care on the island of São Vicente, after being rescued from a pirogue by an Italian oil tanker in Cape Verde’s territorial waters, an official source said today.
“They saw 15 people in that pirogue, of which eight were survivors,” Vitória Veríssimo, commander of the Cape Verdean Civil Protection, told Lusa, adding that one of these people died on the tanker, while another died in the Batista de Sousa hospital, a few hours later. upon arrival in São Vicente.
According to the same source, the remaining six survivors are being observed in the hospital and are “extremely weakened” and “somewhat disoriented”.
Vitória Veríssimo added that the vessel was already spotted in Cape Verde waters by an oil tanker from Italy, bound for Brazil, and headed to Porto Grande do Mindelo, in São Vicente, which was the closest.
The alert was given on Monday and the arrival in São Vicente took place on Tuesday in the late afternoon and the shipwrecks were transferred on the high seas, continued the commander.
The same source revealed that, based on the information provided by those responsible for the tanker, there were already seven bodies in the pirogue, which had to be left adrift for later rescue, as there were no conditions to transport bodies.
The vessel remained outside Cape Verde’s territorial waters, but the tanker left the coordinates and respective directions for other ships passing through the region with the possibility of carrying out the rescue, he said.
“This is now a procedure carried out by the Maritime Police or the Coast Guard”, he indicated, adding that there is only one identification, which he says is from Mali, and that the Cape Verdean police are investigating and keeping records.
After medical treatment and the identification process, the commander said that these migrants will be repatriated to their countries of origin, as was done with the recent cases of boats that washed up on the coast of the island of São Vicente.
The last one took place in March, with 15 migrants, including 13 Malians, one Senegalese and one Mauritanian, from a group of 56 people, who left the port city of Nouadhibou, in Mauritania.
In the last 18 months, five artisanal boats have washed ashore in Cape Verde with migrants from the west coast of Africa.
“Unfortunately, these are cases that we are seeing in the news all over the world” with three groups arriving in São Vicente in a short time, highlighted Veríssimo, for whom the “biggest concern” at the moment is the health status of these people.
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