Senegal's parliament has passed a bill which would make the children of 
Africa's worst maritime disaster "orphans of the nation". This would mean 
that about 1,900 children would enjoy free health care and education.

A BBC correspondent in Dakar says the new law comes four years after such 
promises were first made and do not take effect immediately.

The 2002 Joola ferry sinking claimed 1,863 lives - more than the Titanic. 
The boat was sailing from Senegal's southern province of Casamance to the 
capital, Dakar, when it capsized in a storm off the Gambian coast. Only 64 
people survived.

Electoral ploy

Idrissa Diallo, head of one of the associations set up to help victims of 
the Joola tragedy, welcomed the new bill. "It is a very good thing. Let's 
hope that it is applied very quickly," he told the AFP news agency. But the 
BBC's Tidiane Sy in Dakar says some suspect the law could be a ploy to win 
votes ahead of elections due early next year.

The Joola remains on the bottom of the ocean with some 1,000 victims still 
inside. Many of the families are still waiting for promised compensation 
totalling some $30m. Many of those who died were schoolchildren returning to 
Dakar at the end of the summer holidays.

The ferry was carrying nearly four times as many people as it should have 
been when it went down off the Gambian coast. An inquiry concluded that the 
accident had been caused by overloading and negligence on the part of the 
boat's operators, the Senegalese navy and rescue services.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6131884.stm

Published: 2006/11/09 11:32:12 GMT

© BBC MMVI

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