'Many Missing' after Mali Boat Sinks

At least 20 bodies have been recovered after a boat carrying hundreds of passengers capsized on the River Niger, Mali, on Friday night, officials say.
The vessel broke up near Konna whilst en route north from the town of Mopti to Timbuktu,reports the BBC.

Over 200 people are known to have survived the accident, but it is not yet clear how many are still missing.

Officials said the boat was overloaded with
goods and may have carried as many as 400
passengers.

The boat broke at the stern on a branch of the river near the village of Koubi, with some 210 survivors, Commander Dramane Diallo of the rescue services told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

He said the reason for the boat overturning
was unknown but an investigation is under way.

Dozens of people are still feared missing, but there are conflicting reports over the exact numbers.

Emergency officials, quoted by AFP, said 23
people were still missing.

However, the mayor of Koubi, Sory Diakite,
told AP that only 210 of the 400 passengers
on board had been accounted for.

Eyewitness Ibrahim Yattara, who was asleep
with his pregnant wife onboard the boat when
it sunk, told Associated Press it collapsed
because it was overloaded with cargo.

With the excess weight it broke into two
pieces. I started to swim and looked for my
wife but after a while the boat was completely under water."

He says his wife is still missing.

Local residents say many of the passengers
would have been schoolchildren returning to
the north for the start of their new academic year.

Officials have warned the death count may
rise, as recovery operations continued late
into Saturday afternoon.

Many Malians opt to travel by water, often in rudimentary canoes, due to poor road
conditions in the north and the relatively
high cost of overland travel.

At over 4,000km (2,500 miles) long, the Niger river connects landlocked Mali's arid north with the more fertile south.

And in a related development, 12 people were
dead and 116 people were rescued after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the
Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian port city
of Alexandria on Friday, Egypt's state-run
newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

The people aboard the boat were mostly Syrian and Palestinian "illegal immigrants," the paper reported.

Those who were rescued -- 40 Syrians, 72
Palestinians and four Egyptians -- were taken to a naval base, Al-Ahram reported.