Gabon: disappearance of several students after a swim, people accuse politicians

In Gabon, the controversy swells over the disappearance of several students from the same college after going to swim on a beach in Libreville to celebrate the end of the school year without notifying their parents.

Social networks talk about 15 dead or missing but Justice recognizes three deaths.

Another subject of controversy, the circumstances of the deaths of these students.

Naomie is one of the moms who mourns her son. Darlin Stessy went to school on May 25th with other friends, the student ended up at the beach for a swim.

A family photo taken while swimming shows Stessy and his friends smiling. This is his last proof of life.

His parents searched for three days, it is the morgue of Gabosep that the body was found in a state that raises doubts.

“I complained to the judicial police. I want to do an autopsy to find out the causes of the child’s death,” his mother said.

In a statement on Monday, the public prosecutor admitted the drowning of three students of the ASE of Akbe, including Stessy while social networks report 15 missing students.

Some do not hesitate to talk about ritual crime to allow political figures to be elected in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

On Tuesday, Guy Bertrand Mapangou, Minister of Communication on his statement said. “On the eve of each election, malignant and sorrowful spirits awake to see in each death of a Gabonese” a crime he describes “mechanically and tendentiously as a ritual crime. It is inconceivable to use family pain for political and unacknowledged purposes.”

The beach where the bodies were recovered is closed until further notice.