At about 1.30pm on 26 September 2002, MV Le Joola set sail from Ziguinchor, the regional capital of southern Senegal, bound for Dakar. A reported 2000 passengers, excluding those without tickets, were on board even though the vessel was only licensed to carry approximately 580 people.

A maritime security centre in Dakar recorded the last call made by the crew at 10pm, reporting favourable conditions. Halfway along the coast of neighbouring Gambia, the ship capsized in what the government initially claimed were rough seas and strong winds. Survivors said that within five to ten minutes the boat had thrown passengers and cargo into the sea. Most of the passengers were trapped alive inside the boat.

It took the official rescue team hours to arrive at the scene. Local fishermen with pirogues nearby started their own rescue operation and succeeded in pulling some people onto their boats. By the time the rescue team arrived, most of the bodies were already floating around the ship.

Out of the reported 2000 passengers on board, at least 1863 were confirmed dead. Most of the bodies had been eaten by fish and were beyond recognition. People from up to 15 countries, including Senegal, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Belgium, Cameroon, Ghana, Lebanon, Nigeria and Guinea, lost their lives in the disaster.

The Joola ferry disaster claimed more victims than the sinking of the Titanic and it is Africa’s worst ever maritime disaster. We hear an account from one man whose life was changed forever by the tragedy and who continues his search for justice to this day.

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Nassardine Aidara returned to Dakar around 15 September 2002 from Ziguinchor in southern Senegal where he had been holidaying with his family. His busy work schedule in Dakar caused him to cut his vacation short, leaving his wife, mother and four children in his holiday home in the south.

On 24 September, Aidara made arrangements for his family to travel back to Dakar by road the next day. But his four children were keen to experience travelling on a ferry. A doting father, he agreed that his four children could take the coastal ferry while his mother and wife made the journey by road. A few hours before the ferry left the port of Ziguinchor in the early hours of the morning, he spoke to his kids and they thanked him for letting them take the boat. He told them he planned to take them shopping once they reached Dakar and wished them an enjoyable journey.

Waiting
At 7am on 26 September, Aidara arrived at the port in Dakar to pick up his children. “I waited and waited till 8am and the ferry wasn’t there. I asked a police officer on duty at the port why the ferry was still not there and she told me the boat was nearly there.” He waited for two more hours and still there was no sign of the ferry. His patience began to run out.

Aidara arranged for his children to be picked up by taxi and taken home, while he drove back to his busy office at the local polytechnic. As soon as he reached the office, he heard the news on the radio that the ferry had sunk and that there were only 62 survivors. He screamed “What? Sixty-two survivors? That’s impossible!” He drove back to the port where officials confirmed the news he had heard on the radio.

All of Aidara’s four children perished in the ocean. In the days that followed the disaster, Aidara remained optimistic that his four children had survived. “I was very confident that my children were among the 62 survivors. It never occurred to me that they would die on that boat… all of them. I can’t still understand why they died there, how they died. They were very excited about the trip. I was looking forward to going shopping with them that day.”

The bodies of Aidara’s four children were never found. He has written two books in memory of his children and other victims of Le Joola. His elder children meant the whole world to him. Souleymane was a 17-year-old student at Collège Jean d’Arc in Dakar. Bassirou was 21 and was also attending college. His younger children Aliou and Fatou were both 15.

Haunted
Idrissa Diallo was in the US city of Atlanta when he received a phone call from his younger brother in Washington DC who told him that all of his children had been killed in the ferry disaster. He collapsed instantly.

Diallo’s eldest son, Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane, 15, was an outstanding student at the Collège de la Cathédrale private school in Central Dakar. Saliou, 13, and Souleymane, 8, were both attending primary school in Dakar. He had spoken to them on the phone the night before the ferry left for Dakar and promised to ring them as soon as they arrived.

Diallo immediately flew back to Dakar, arriving nearly 48 hours after the ferry had sunk. The bodies of his children were never recovered and he is still haunted by the memory. “A father who loses all his children, all of them… it has been very difficult. Every day they come back into my head because my whole universe was built around them. They were my life. I feel traumatised whenever their birthdays are here because I wish I could celebrate with them, make them happy, and watch them celebrating. But no… they are gone because of the recklessness and negligence of some government officials.”

Aftermath
In the aftermath of the disaster, some Senegalese government officials, including the then Prime Minister, Mame Madior Boye, were held responsible for the disaster. Some lost their jobs. But the Senegalese authorities have never brought those responsible to trial, a fact that continues to anger the victims’ families.

On Saturday, the families gathered to mark the seventh anniversary of the disaster, at a cemetery in the suburbs of Dakar where 102 of the victims have been laid to rest. The occasion was fraught with emotion as children cried for their lost parents, and mothers wept for their husbands and children. They continue to demand justice from the authorities.

MV le Joola memorial, Ziguinchor. Photo: Wikipedia