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What happened, where and when?
On 20 July 2024, the National President of Equatorial Guinea Red Cross was alerted by government authorities from Bata when a shipwreck occurred on 20 July 2024, before dawn. The shipwreck is said to have occurred at the Rio Campo Cribi sea border between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Initially, the rescued passengers had indicated that they had been travelling since 1st July 2024, trying to reach Gabon where they had been promised jobs. However, it was confirmed during the lessons learned workshop that the boat had been stationed in the international waters between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for almost 19 days, the captain having abandoned it with the passengers for fear of being arrested by the Equatorial Guinea authorities who could be seen from distance, thus abandoning the passengers to their fate. The lessons learned workshop also confirmed that the boat had not been involved in an accident. Though the NS was made to believe that it was a shipwreck from the beginning of the operation. The assisted people injuries resulted from exposure to bad weather for more than two weeks, without any assistance at sea, as they were rescued after spending around 19 days in the boat without being able to move. One of the rescued passengers reported to the Red Cross of Equatorial Guinea during the lessons learned workshop that the waters were shifting them slowly and it is when they eventually entered into the Equatorial Guinea territory that they were rescued by the National Gendarmerie of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.
The only occasion the NS had to discuss for about an hour with one of the people affected was during the lessons learned workshop.
That was how the NS discovered that there was never such thing as a shipwreck.
Scope and Scale
The boat was carrying 90 people, including 47 women from different nationalities (30 from Benin and 17 from Togo), as well as 43 men also from different nationalities (10 from Togo, 16 from Benin, 8 Burkina Faso nationals, 2 Niger nationals, and 6 Nigerians). One of the men died, but the 89 others were rescued. Among these, some were wounded, from superficial bruises to fractures. The host National Society provided first aid services to the wounded as soon as they were alerted by government authorities (the Gendarmerie Nacional).
A rapid assessment conducted by the Equatorial Guinea Red Cros (EGRC) indicated that the 89 rescued passengers were in a small room at the Gendarmerie in Bata, initially made to accomodate 4 people. They were not allowed to move out of the gendarmerie as none of them had the Equatorial Guinea visa. They arrived with no personal effects. They urgently needed water, food, clothes, sleeping and hygiene material, mosquito nets, buckets, jerrycans and cups for drinking water.
On 26th July, authorities indicated that the affected people would be moved to a COVID management structure, where they would have more space and intimacy. However, two months after the accident, they were still in the gendarmerie, though in a bigger room. Men and women shared the same space and created a separation themselves. They received non-food items and hot meals from consulates and local NGOs during the first month. But from September to October, only Red Cross continued providing assistance to them, assistance which stopped at the end of this operation in October 2024. Their fate is not clear, as repatriation has been discussed for a certain time with no clear outcome. As they are not allowed to leave the gendarmerie to work and have no family, they rely only on external assistance for their basic needs.
During the lessons learned workshop, the Red Cross discussed with a representative of the Consulate of Bening in Bata, one of the countries of origin of the people affected, and they said most of the affected people, at least the Beninese that they could confirm, would be repatriated to Bening before the end of October 2024. They also added that the embassies of the countries concerned had been reached and told to organize the repatriation of their nationals.