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A 28-year-old man has revealed he managed to save his mother and wife from drowning in the tragic boat disaster on the Volta Lake. But his efforts were not enough to save his two children who are among the 14 bodies found after more than 48-hours of search operations.

The tragedy occurred 45 minutes away from the mainland at Yeji in the Volta Region after an overloaded boat capsized on Sunday, May 29. A grieving Alex Agyei Biney who is a fisherman said, “I tried to save my mother, my wife and four other persons, because of that I could not save my children. I lost my children”.

He said he is finding comfort in the words of the Bible, which encourages Christians to leave everything to God.

Six bodies of children under three years were the first set of drowned passengers dragged out of the lake hours after the unfortunate tragedy on Sunday. Eight more bodies were retrieved using a rope tied to a hook on Monday, May 30. Mr. Biney’s grief is one of the several others in which almost an entire nuclear family drowned.

Daniel Cudjoe, also a fisherman in his early 30’s rescued his mother and wife but lost four relatives; three women and one man.

“When the boat capsized I held onto my wife and children. I wasn’t able to save my relatives because they drowned after I had taken my family to safety” he told Joy News. Of the four family members who drowned, two bodies were found, but two remain unaccounted for.

He said he has lost hope of finding the other bodies.