Boat full of decomposing bodies found by fishermen off the coast of Brazil

A small boat full of bodies being analyzed was spotted by fishermen off the northeastern coast of Brazil, according to local news reports. Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it had sent a forensic team to the area to determine where the bodies and the boat came from.

“Some reports say there could be up to 20 bodies” on the boat, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. The office announced it was opening a criminal and civil investigation into the incident.

The ship was floating off the coast of the state of Pará, in a remote location about 185 miles from the state capital, Belem.

According to journalistic reports, the fishermen alerted the authorities after finding the boat near the town of Bragança, located on the northern coast of Brazil.

“According to civil police and forensic experts, there were at least 20 bodies. Braganza federal police chief Alexandre Calvinho said they were believed to be Haitian refugees.“police said in a statement.

“However, further investigation is needed to confirm the cause of death and the identity of the victims.”

Forensic experts will also have to confirm the exact number of victims, he added.

“The victims are believed to have died of starvation and dehydration, but further analysis is required. “The investigation is ongoing,” police said.

The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it had opened both criminal and civil investigations into the case.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned of internal displacement in Haiti, which reflects the severity of the current crisis

Haiti faces a multidimensional crisis. The country is not only regularly affected by natural hazards, such as earthquakes, storms and floods, but also by violence spread by hundreds of gangs, mainly in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, but also spreading through the provinces.

More than 160,000 Haitians have been displaced in the first months of 2024, according to the IOM.

The UN estimates that the conflict has driven some 300,000 people from their homes and that last year gangs killed nearly 5,000 people and kidnapped nearly 2,500. sometimes using videos of rape and torture to extort expensive ransoms from victims’ friends and family.

It was not the first time that fishermen had sighted ships carrying bodies on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean. In 2021, at least seven boatloads of bodies turned up in Brazil and the Eastern Caribbean.

The controversial politician was unable to return to the country after a trip to Kenya at the beginning of the month. On March 11 he agreed to resign, and the future Haitian Presidential Council, which must take the reins of the nation, committed on Wednesday to reestablish “public and democratic order.”

Keep reading:
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