Three drown in River Biriboro at Welembelle
The Welembelle community in the Sissala East District in the Upper West Region has been thrown into a state of shock and mourning following the drowning of three persons.
Advertisement
Firdaus Bashiru, 10, and Fadilatu Bashiru, 12, both pupils of Welembelle L/A Primary School, drowned in River Biriboro last Friday when the water body overflowed its banks during a downpour.
They had gone searching for sheanuts on farms.
The third person, Peter Issah Gbegnin, 30, a resident, who volunteered to join a search party to find the two children also drowned in the same river within 48 hours of the death of the girls.
Gbegnin is said to have left behind a wife and two children.
The effect of the three deaths remains evident on the Welembelle community where many farmers have reportedly downed their hoes and machetes, days after all three had even been buried.
Missing
According to Assistant Commissioner of Police and deputy Commander of the Upper West Regional Police Command, Dr Sayibu Pabi Gariba, the father of the two girls, Amidu Salia, made a report to the district police command at Tumu last Friday that his two children who went to collect sheanuts on farms the previous day had not returned and could not be found.
He said on Saturday afternoon, a search party that involved both the police and some members of the community began the search for the girls on the farms where the otherwise small river had overflowed its banks, following a downpour when the girls were on the farms.
It was during the search that Gbegnin, who other sources said was an uncle of the children, also went missing.
Other Trending Stories
Bodies retrieved
Dr Gariba said the body of Fadilatu was found around 2 p.m. on Saturday and those of Firdaus and Issah Gbegnin were found the following day.
All three have since been buried following postmortem at the Tumu District Hospital.
Mohammed Balu Salia, who works with Radford FM in Tumu, said the young girls appeared to have lost their way during the downpour when the river flooded the normal pathway.