Twenty years ago today, the coastal ferry Joola capsized off the coast of Senegal, drowning nearly 2,000 passengers. The Senegalese town where half of the dead lived will on Monday hold commemorations for a "wound that never heals".
The Joola shipwreck was the world's worstst civil maritime disaster. The vessel sank drowning more victims than perished on board the Titanic. A total of 1,863 people drowned. The ferry had a capacity of 536 passengers, and had been condemned as unseaworythy by the Veritas Maritime Assessment agency.
