A wild hippopotamus capsized a boat carrying 14 people, including children and a baby, on the Sassandra River in southwestern Ivory Coast on Friday, leaving 11 missing, authorities have said.
The country's minister of cohesion and solidarity, Myss Belmonde Dogo, announced the incident on Facebook, expressing deep sorrow. 'It is with deep sorrow that we learned that 11 people, including women, girls and an infant, have gone missing following a boat capsized caused by a hippo,' she wrote.
Search and rescue operations are underway, with only three people confirmed to have survived the freak accident. 'The scene unfolded early yesterday morning on the Sassandra River in Buyo,' Dogo said on Saturday. 'Of the 14 occupants on the boat, at the moment 03 survivors. Search continues in hopes of finding missing victims.'
Hippos are the most common cause of animal attacks resulting in deaths or injuries in Ivory Coast, according to a 2022 university study. Globally, hippos kill an estimated 500 people each year.
Boat accidents are relatively common in Ivory Coast, where handcrafted longboats, often overloaded, are used for transport between waterside communities. In April, 12 children and adolescents drowned after their boat capsized near Abidjan.
