Death toll from Djibouti boat accident rises to 109

April 9, 2006 (DJIBOUTI) — The death toll from last week’s boat accident in Djibouti has risen to 109 after navy and coast guard crews recovered more bodies, the state-owned news agency reported.

Crews recovered the bodies in the harbor where a boat ferrying passengers to an annual religious festival overturned Thursday off the coast of Djibouti, the Djibouti News Agency reported Saturday.

On Thursday, Ismael Tani, an adviser to President Ismail Umar Guelleh said that the provisional death toll was 69.

The boat was carrying more than 300 passengers when it was going to the country’s north for the festival and survivors said that it was overloaded, the Djibouti News Agency reported Saturday.

Djibouti, a Horn of Africa nation of some 486,000 people bordering Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, is a former French territory and hosts the only U.S. military base in sub-Saharan Africa.

(ST/AP)