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At least 127 people heading from Nigeria to Gabon in search of work are believed to have drowned when their wooden boat sank off the coast of Cameroon, state-run television said on Thursday.
It was unclear when and why it went down, Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) said. The boat, believed to be carrying some 150 passengers, was sailing from the eastern Nigerian town of Oron to Gabon when it capsized off the coast of the town of Kribi, it added.
Senior District Officer Gregoire Mvongo told IRIN from Kribi, which is located some 400 kilometres south of Yaounde, that "fishermen found bodies floating toward the coast of Kribi last night and began transporting them to the shores."
Mvongo said that fishermen had rescued some 20 passengers alive and that efforts were continuing to seek survivors. The boat went down in heavy seas, some of the survivors said.
Officials said some of the migrants were identified as Beninese, Ivorian, Nigerian and Burkinabe nationals. West Africans seeking jobs in oil-producing Gabon and Equatorial Guinea often travel through the Gulf of Guinea.
It was the third boat to capsize in the Gulf of Guinea in the past eight months.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions