2 dead, 70 missing following boat tragedy in Guyana

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said Trinidad and To­ba­go’s troops will be de­ployed to sup­port res­cue ef­forts fol­low­ing the MV Bari­ma tragedy in Guyana.

On Sat­ur­day, the fer­ry, which was car­ry­ing 133 pas­sen­gers, cap­sized in Guyanese wa­ters.

Guyanese au­thor­i­ties yes­ter­day con­firmed that two peo­ple had died and 70 were miss­ing.

In a post on so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I ex­tend our heart­felt con­do­lences to His Ex­cel­len­cy Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali, Pres­i­dent of the Co­op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana, and to the peo­ple of Guyana dur­ing this time of pro­found sor­row.”

The post con­tin­ued, “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those af­fect­ed by this tragedy, es­pe­cial­ly the fam­i­lies of those who re­main miss­ing or who have lost loved ones. We al­so pay trib­ute to the res­cue teams whose courage, ded­i­ca­tion, and tire­less ef­forts con­tin­ue as they work to bring sur­vivors to safe­ty.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said air and naval as­sets and hu­man re­sources from the T&T De­fence Force are lend­ing sup­port to re­cov­ery ef­forts.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with our broth­ers and sis­ters in Guyana as they anx­ious­ly await the safe re­turn of their loved ones. We share in your grief and hope that those still un­ac­count­ed for will be found as search and res­cue op­er­a­tions con­tin­ue.”