Hippo capsizes boat in Ivory Coast; 11 individuals lacking, together with kids and child

[ad_1] Eleven individuals, together with kids and a child, have been lacking after a hippopotamus capsized their boat in southwestern Ivory Coast, a authorities official mentioned Saturday.

The West African nation's minister for nationwide cohesion and solidarity, Myss Belmonde Dogo, said on her Facebook page that the lacking included ladies, little ladies and an toddler.

She mentioned the hippopotamus tipped the slim, canoe-like boat over on Friday, because it was motoring alongside the Sassandra River close to the city of Buyo.

Three individuals survived the incident and have been rescued, and "a search is ongoing within the hope of discovering the lacking victims," she mentioned.

A 2022 research by Ivory Coast college researchers discovered that hippopotamuses have been the species most talked about in interactions with people that induced deaths or harm within the nation.

There are an estimated 500 hippos in Ivory Coast, distributed among the many numerous rivers in nation's south, primarily the Sassandra and the Bandama water programs.

Boat accidents are pretty widespread within the nation, as handcrafted longboats are used to navigate between waterside communities, and are regularly overloaded with passengers and items.

In April, a dozen kids and adolescents drowned when the boat they have been on capsized in a lagoon close to the principal metropolis of Abidjan.

Estimates of how many individuals are killed by hippos annually range, with decrease figures starting at round 500.

In June 2024, a girl from New Jersey was killed in an hippopotamus assault throughout a safari in Zambia. The girl's husband later sued the U.S. firm that organized the journey.

In 2023, seven individuals have been killed, including a 1-year-old child , within the southern African nation of Malawi when a hippo charged right into a canoe and capsized it on a river.

In 2018, a Chinese language vacationer and a neighborhood fisherman have been killed in hippo attacks on the identical day in Kenya.

Hippos are the world's second-largest land mammals after elephants, measuring about 11 ft lengthy and about 5 ft tall, in response to Worldwide Fund for Animal Welfare. The typical male hippo weighs about 7,000 kilos.