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The sinking of a ship off northeastern Madagascar on Monday left at least 64 dead, we learned from the gendarmerie on Wednesday, an update after the discovery of 25 new bodies. Shortly after, a helicopter, on its way to the scene, crashed into the sea.
At least 64 people were killed in the sinking of a ship off the coast of northeastern Madagascar on Monday, December 20, while an air force helicopter participating in the rescue crashed, a- we learned on Wednesday.
“Twenty-five bodies were recovered this morning on the outskirts of Île Sainte-Marie, probably because of sea currents. This brings the total of the dead to 64,” Gendarmerie General Zafisambatra Ravoavy confirmed to AFP. .
The ship had taken on some 130 passengers and 45 of them were rescued. There are about twenty missing and the search is continuing.
This wooden goods transport boat left Monday morning from the small town of Antseraka towards Soanierana-Ivongo, nearly a hundred kilometers further south on the coast. It was not allowed to take on passengers, maritime authorities said.
“According to the initial report of our agents on site, the engine would have had a technical problem”, explained Adrien Fabrice Ratsimbazafy, representative of the APMF in Soanierana-Ivongo. “The boat found itself at the mercy of the waves and ran aground on a reef,” he added.
The day became even more dramatic when an Air Force helicopter crashed off the coast, leaving two missing and two survivors, including the Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie who swam nearly twelve hours to reach the shore, we learned Tuesday from the gendarmerie and maritime authorities.
The helicopter was also carrying three gendarmes. One of them, ejected at the same time as the Secretary of State and General, Serge Gellé, also survived. The other two gendarmes, including the pilot, are missing, according to these sources.
A helicopter seat cushion as a lifeline
The helicopter was heading towards Antseraka, a small town off which the ship was wrecked on Monday morning. Ejected from the helicopter, the surviving Secretary of State and the gendarme were found separately by residents on the beach of Mahambo, about 75 km north of Toamasina, the large port city in eastern Madagascar, said the Minister. director of the maritime authority, Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina.
According to him, the two men were “separated at sea. They were not together”.
“My turn to die has not yet arrived, thank God” and “to the villagers and fishermen of Mahambo”, declared in a video broadcast on social networks, Serge Gellé, rescued by the local population.
The drawn features, dressed in a fatigues and lying on a deckchair, the minister, general of the gendarmerie of 57 years, specified to have “no injuries, only cold”. “I will be able to return to work within 24 hours,” he said.
♦ ️GDI Serge GELLE, one of the passengers in the helicopter which crashed yesterday, was found safe and sound this morning near Mahambo.
☑️ The rescuers of the # 4 ° UPC also found the helicopter wreck at the bottom of the sea. pic.twitter.com/sP2abwTMwB– Ministry of National Defense Madagascar (@MDN_Madagascar) December 21, 2021
“He is a character soldier,” General Ravoavy, who worked with General Gellé for a long time, commented to AFP.
“He has always played the sport with a lot of endurance. And he kept that rhythm even as a minister, as a 30-year-old. He has a morale of steel, he was rejected by the waves and he didn’t did not let go, “he added, adding that the general had used a helicopter seat cushion as a lifeline.
General Gellé is one of the new recruits of President Andry Rajoelina and entered the government following the last reshuffle in August, after more than 30 years in the gendarmerie.
The Madagascan gendarmerie indicated that they did not immediately know the circumstances of the fall of the helicopter. The search continued to find the two missing occupants.
With AFP