(Conakry) At least seven young schoolgirls who were going to take college entrance exams on Monday drowned after their canoe capsized on the Niger River near the town of Kouroussa in Upper Guinea, a minister and a relative said. ‘a victim.
“We are struck by this bad news of the shipwreck of seven students who lost their lives,” said the Minister of Pre-university Education and Literacy Guillaume Hawing, who is in the region to launch the first exam papers.
Mamadi Kéita, a security guard, told AFP that he had lost his half-sister in this drowning. “She was leaving with her classmates for the other side of the Niger River to face the first tests of their entrance exam in 7e year which begins on Monday.
“They embarked in an overloaded canoe which capsized under the weight of passengers and goods,” he added in tears over the phone.
“All the girls came from Kourala district and were going to Balato sub-prefecture, 40 km from Kouroussa prefecture,” he said.
Another local source assured AFP anonymously that the toll was only provisional and could be heavier. The operations to find bodies continue Sunday evening.