Children and a baby are among the 11 who remain missing after a boat capsized.
On the morning of Friday, September 5, a hippopotamus capsized a boat transporting 14 passengers along the Sassandra River in Buyo, Ivory Coast. This incident was reported in an official statement by the country’s Minister of Cohesion and Solidarity, Myss Belmonde Dogo, who shared the information via Facebook.
Minister Dogo expressed profound sadness over the incident, noting that 11 individuals including women, girls, and an infant were reported missing after a hippopotamus caused the boat to overturn. She further explained that three passengers managed to survive, and search operations remain ongoing in the hope of locating the missing victims.
In her statement, Dogo emphasized that the Government of Côte d’Ivoire shares in the grief of the bereaved families and extends its solidarity to both the survivors and those affected by this tragedy.
There are an estimated 500 hippos in the West African country, inhabiting mostly the rivers across the southern area.
A 2022 study by researchers from an Ivorian university found that hippopotamuses are the animals most often linked to incidents in the country that result in human injuries or fatalities.
An African Zoology study explains that this recent tragedy occurred against the backdrop of a sharp decline in hippo populations in Ivory Coast over the past two decades, largely due to hunting pressures. The research further notes that during the rainy season, hippos tend to move upstream into smaller tributaries and downstream toward the coast. As forests are increasingly altered by logging and agricultural activities, smaller groups of common hippos have begun to settle permanently in these modified environments.
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