Search for missing continues in Guyana after ferry transporting over 170 people capsized

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Jul 21, 2026

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The government of Guyana continued to search its coastal waters Tuesday for dozens of people still missing after a government ferry capsized over the weekend in one of the deadliest disasters to it the South American country.

“Search and recovery operations continued throughout the night, as teams remained on the water in the ongoing effort to locate those still unaccounted for,” President Mohamed Irfaan Ali wrote on Facebook on Tuesday morning. Photographs accompanying the post showed him meeting with relatives of the missing.

Authorities in the English-speaking country later announced that they had rescued additional people, to bring the total on Tuesday to 77; 41 bodies have been recovered.

“The first recovery for the day was made at 10:15, and 14 bodies have been retrieved as of 1 p.m.,” the government said in a statement. “French and local divers are continuing underwater search and recovery operations at the wreckage site.”

Late Monday, Prime Minister Mark Phillips announced that reports suggested as many as 83 people were still missing from the ferry, whose manifest showed it had 179 passengers and crew onboard.

“They are deemed missing and still to be found,” Phillips said. “Again, this is a search and rescue operation. It remains a search-and-rescue operation, not to withstand the fact we are recovering bodies. We still have hope that people are there who are alive, and therefore we continue our search-and-rescue activities.”

The MV Barima ferry capsized on Saturday night while en route from Georgetown, the capital, to Port Kaituma, a remote gold mining town along the Atlantic coast.

A massive search-and-rescue operation was launched immediately, Phillips said, with 13 additional aircraft and vessels deployed at first light to reinforce crews that had searched through the night. Helicopters, airplanes and fishing vessels combed a roughly 1,000-square-mile area.

At 9:26 a.m. Sunday, a vessel spotted debris at sea. Shortly afterward, the Guyana Defense Force identified a large debris field about three miles off Devonshire Castle Flats.

Around 10:35 a.m., rescuers recovered the body of a woman off the coast of Moruca. By 1:49 p.m., a Guyana Defense Force Coast Guard team had recovered eight more bodies, bringing the total at that point to 10.

But it was hours before the full scale of the disaster became apparent.

The MV Barima departed shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said in a video on his Facebook page. A distress call was received at approximately 11:01 p.m. and emergency search and rescue operations were immediately launched using government and private vessels.

The ferry, Edghill said, was fitted with 250 life jackets, two rigid life rafts and six inflatable life rafts.

“We have received the support of many agencies that are going at full speed to ensure we have everybody recovered,” he said.

The search has drawn international assistance. France, through its armed forces, deployed 15 divers to join local teams at the wreck site. Trinidad and Tobago has also pledged additional search and diving resources, authorities said.

The ferry’s location was initially reported by a fisherman, Haresh Singh, who had also assisted in the rescue operations. Officials said Exxon Mobil Guyana and a survey vessel also helped confirm the ferry location.

“The vessel was found rested on the seabed close to the point of initial distress communicated by the Air Traffic Control tower, nine miles offshore Devonshire Castle, Flats,” Phillips said.

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