Africa-Press – Cape verde. The São Vicente Health Delegate assured today that the five survivors of the pirogue washed ashore in Calhau are dehydrated, but “doing well”, while two of the five bodies have already been buried.
Elísio Silva spoke to Inforpress about the health status of the five people who were found alive and taken to Baptista de Sousa Hospital, after the vessel washed ashore on one of the beaches attached to Vila Miséria, in the fishing town of Calhau.
According to the same source, the five occupants are stable and under the care of doctors to see their progress in the coming hours and days.
The head of Health in São Vicente also said that of the five bodies found in the pirogue, two had to be buried immediately, as they were “in an advanced state of decomposition”, while three were sent to the hospital’s mortuary and are in cold storage awaiting possible identification by family members, or possible transfer to countries of origin.
As the commander of the Civil Protection services, Vitória Veríssimo, told the press, earlier at the scene, through documents collected by the Judicial Police, it was possible to find out some nationalities of the vessel’s occupants, these being Mauritania, Mali and Senegal.
But, according to the same source, there is still no certainty as to the origin of the pirogue, although the Joint Rescue Coordination Center of the Cape Verde Coast Guard has previously received information from Senegal about pirogues being sighted.
The municipal firefighters were called by the National Police at around 9:30 am to the occurrence of a pirogue, a rustic rowing vessel, dug into a tree trunk by fire.
Upon arriving at the scene, they found five dead bodies, plus four survivors who were taken to the hospital still alive. Later, another “weak person” was found on the hillside.
The Civil Protection commander informed that all the occupants of the vessel were men, and “apparently young”, and that during today, in joint work between the National Police, military personnel from the Armed Forces, Red Cross, the intention was to search the entire area to rule out the possibility of there being survivors who managed to reach nearby villages.
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