The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Emma Kowa Jalloh (Mrs.), on Wednesday 3rd August, 2022 disclosed that nine fishermen were presumed dead following the capsizing of a boat at the Jui sea axis on Tuesday 2nd August.

The presumed victims of the capsized boat were Ibrahim Bangura, Momoh Sonnie, Foday Kamara, Yusif Conteh, Mohamed Kamara and four others. They were staff of SABCO Fishing Company with offices at Kissy and Jui.

Giving an update of the incident yesterday at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources conference room at Youyi Building, Freetown, Hon. Emma Kowa Jalloh (Mrs.) expressed deepest condolence to the bereaved families of the presumed victims of the sea disaster.
She disclosed that the Joint Marine Committee (JMC) at Murray Town was in search of the presumed victims at sea.

According to the Minister, the JMC has so far not seen any of the presumed victims of the capsize boat as it continues its endless searching for them.The Minister furthered that the Government has through her Ministry taken proactive steps as police are at present investigating the circumstances that resulted to the capsizing of the boat.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahman Swaray, on behalf of the Government expressed deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the fishermen who were presumed dead.

The Minister stressed that the Government cares for the lives of citizens, adding that the sad incident was a teachable lesson to avert the recurrence of any sea incident.

Minister Swaray urged the fishing company to cooperate fully with the Fisheries and Marine Resources Ministry and the police as investigation into the incident progresses.

The head of SABCO fishing crew, Alpha Samura, disclosed that the presumed victims were those seated in the middle of the boat when it capsized.
According to him, the life jackets were not accessible to wear, adding that most of the survivors hung on the capsized boat for long before the rescue team arrived at the scene of incident.

The Operation Manager of SABCO Fishing Company, Sahr Jimmy, disclosed that he called on the rescue team immediately they were informed that their boat had capsized.

Mr. Jimmy furthered that they were able to rescue most of the crew members on board the capsized boat and brought them on land before he would later honour the invitation of the police at the Jui Police Division, noting that the matter was later transferred to the Ross Road Police Division for questioning.