A major maritime search and rescue operation is underway off the coast of Guyana following the late Saturday night capsizing of the MV Barima, an 89-year-old ferry traveling to Port Kaituma in the country’s North-West District. As of early Sunday morning, Prime Minister Mark Phillips confirmed that 53 people — a combination of passengers and crew members — have been pulled from the water alive.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill alongside the Prime Minister announced that additional details about the accident will be released after sunrise Sunday, as rescue teams work to gather more on-the-ground information amid low-light conditions from the overnight incident. At the time of the capsizing, Edghill confirmed that 116 passengers plus unspecified crew members were on board the aging vessel when it overturned roughly 10 nautical miles off the Essequibo Coast, according to rough estimates from Google Earth Pro mapping data.
Responders were able to pinpoint the ferry’s location quickly thanks to signals from its Electronic Locater Transmitter (ELT) and visible emergency flares launched by people on board immediately after the incident began. Both state-operated and private rescue assets have been deployed to the incident zone, with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guard leading the official search and recovery effort alongside the private resources. As of the latest update early Sunday, operations remain ongoing to locate the remaining people unaccounted for from the voyage.