MANILA: A ferry with more than 350 people onboard sank early Monday in choppy seas off the southern Philippines, killing at least 18 and leaving 24 still missing, the coast guard said.
The MV Trisha Kerstin 3 issued a distress signal around 1:50 am (1750 GMT Sunday), a bit over four hours after it departed the Port of Zamboanga City on the southwestern tip of Mindanao, the coast guard said in a statement.
Video released by the governor of Basilan province showed barefoot survivors being wrapped in blankets and placed on gurneys, while victims of the sinking were carried past in body bags.
The triple-decker vessel went down on nearly the same route where 31 people died in 2023 after a fire aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry. Both ships were owned by locally based Aleson Shipping Lines.
At least 317 people have so far been rescued, according to the most recent tally by the Philippine Coast Guard, with 18 confirmed dead and 24 still unaccounted for amid an ongoing search-and-rescue operation.
Sheryl Balondo, a rescuer in Isabela City, one of two municipalities where survivors were being taken, said their office had received more than 100 phone calls from concerned family members.
"There's a tug in our hearts whenever we pick up a call. Their voices sounded worried," she said. "What we can only say is that, as of now, we don't have the final list (of names), because the search and retrieval operation is ongoing."
The 44-metre (144-foot) ferry went down about five kilometres east of Baluk-Baluk Island, part of the Basilan province chain of islands off the Zamboanga peninsula.
"Based on the account of some survivors, the waters in the area were rough at the time," Philippine Coast Guard spokeswoman Noemie Cayabyab said in a televised interview.
Short-staffed rescuers
Basilan emergency responder Ronalyn Perez told AFP that rescuers were struggling to handle the influx of survivors.
"The challenge really is the number of patients that are coming in. We are short-staffed at the moment," Perez said in an interview, adding that at least 18 had been brought to one local hospital.
Video released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed survivors being plucked from the water and receiving medical attention.
Some could be heard shouting for help in the dark in a live video on Facebook.
"We cannot say for now the reason of the sinking, but we were instructed to conduct a marine casualty investigation to determine the cause," Romel Dua, a coast guard commander from southern Mindanao, told AFP. "As of now, we are focused on the rescue."
Survivors were being brought to the coast guard stations in Zamboanga and Isabela City, he added.
In its statement, the coast guard said the ferry had not been overloaded.
"Our thoughts and hearts are with everyone who was on board," Aleson Shipping Lines said in a statement, adding they were "working tirelessly" in close coordination with the coast guard.
The archipelago nation of 116 million has a long history of disasters involving the inter-island ferries that ply its seas.
Many rely on cheap and poorly regulated boats and ships for transport between the country's more than 7,000 islands, despite regular accidents.
A 2015 ferry capsizing off the western coast of Leyte Island resulted in more than 60 deaths.
In 1987, the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker in a pre-Christmas accident that claimed more than 4,000 lives. It was the world's worst peacetime disaster at sea.
Ferry sinking kills 18, leaves 24 missing in south Philippines
https://arab.news/95c25
Ferry sinking kills 18, leaves 24 missing in south Philippines
- The triple-decker vessel went down on nearly the same route where 31 people died in 2023 after a fire aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry
In Ethiopia, Tigrayans fear return to ‘full-scale war’
- Flights have been suspended into Tigray since Thursday and local authorities reported drone strikes on goods lorries
- The international community fears the fighting could turn into an international conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea
ADDIS ABABA: Tigrayans in northern Ethiopia fear a return to all-out war amid reports that clashes were continuing between local and federal forces on Monday, barely three years after the last devastating conflict in the region.
The civil war of 2020-2022 between the Ethiopian government and Tigray forces killed more than 600,000 people and a peace deal known as the Pretoria Agreement has never fully resolved the tensions.
Fighting broke out again last week in a disputed area of western Tigray called Tselemt and the Afar region to the east of Tigray.
Abel, 38, a teacher in Tigray’s second city Adigrat, said he still hadn’t recovered from the trauma of the last war and had now “entered into another round of high anxiety.”
“If war breaks out now... it could lead to an endless conflict that can even be dangerous to the larger east African region,” added Abel, whose name has been changed along with other interviewees to protect their identity.
Flights have been suspended into Tigray since Thursday and local authorities reported drone strikes on goods lorries on Saturday that killed at least one driver.
In Afar, a humanitarian worker, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said there had been air strikes on Tigrayan forces and that clashes were ongoing on Monday, with tens of thousands of people displaced.
AFP could not independently verify the claims and the government has yet to give any comment on the clashes.
In the regional capital Mekele, Nahom, 35, said many people were booking bus tickets this weekend to leave, fearing that land transport would also be restricted soon.
“My greatest fear is the latest clashes turning into full-scale war and complete siege like what happened before,” he told AFP by phone, adding that he, too, would leave if he could afford it.
Gebremedhin, a 40-year-old civil servant in the city of Axum, said banks had stopped distributing cash and there were shortages in grocery stores.
“This isn’t only a problem of lack of supplies but also hoarding by traders who fear return of conflict and siege,” he said.
The region was placed under a strict lockdown during the last war, with flights suspended, and banking and communications cut off.
The international community fears the fighting could turn into an international conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relations have been increasingly tense in recent months.
The Ethiopian government accuses the Tigrayan authorities and Eritrea of forging closer ties.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about... the risk of a return to a wider conflict in a region still working to rebuild and recover,” his spokesman said.
The EU said that an “immediate de-escalation is imperative to prevent a renewed conflict.”
