Even as grieving families waited for news of missing loved ones, Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed on Tuesday accused the Government of delaying for hours the retrieval of bodies located by his volunteer search-and-recovery team, forcing civilian boats to remain beside decomposing victims while precious daylight for the search slipped away.
Late Tuesday, Mohamed announced that, after several hours of waiting, government authorities had finally arrived and collected the bodies his team had located.
The allegation has added a politically charged dimension to the national response to the MV Barima disaster, Guyana’s worst maritime tragedy in decades.
The state-owned ferry capsized shortly before 11 p.m. on Saturday while en route from Georgetown to Port Kaituma, off Guyana’s northwestern coast. Authorities initially reported that the vessel carried 116 passengers and 17 crew members based on the official manifest. However, officials later disclosed that 179 people were actually aboard, exposing a discrepancy of 46 passengers and prompting a criminal investigation into alleged illegal ticket sales and serious failures in passenger accountability. The wreck has since been located on the Atlantic Ocean seabed.
By Monday night, Mohamed announced that his privately coordinated search effort had recovered eight bodies, working alongside fishermen and other civilian volunteers assisting in the recovery mission.
Hours earlier, however, Mohamed issued an emotional appeal from one of the search vessels after his team located three bodies floating at sea and, he said, immediately alerted the Guyana Coast Guard.
“I just want to give the public an update,” Mohamed said.
“At 1:04 p.m. I posted where we found a body. Then an hour later we posted two more bodies. Now it’s approaching three o’clock. I posted the coordinates where the three bodies are.”
Standing beside one of the victims, Mohamed described the urgency confronting his team.
“As you can see, we have a body right here. This one is rapidly deteriorating. We’re worried the body can go down because all the organs look like they are displaced.”
According to Mohamed, despite repeatedly contacting the Coast Guard and being assured officers were on their way, no vessel arrived for nearly two hours to collect the bodies.
“I called the Coast Guard. They said they’re coming. Every time they’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming. The Coast Guard base at the mouth of the Pomeroon River is only about 25 minutes from here.”
Instead, three civilian boats remained alongside the bodies to prevent them from drifting away, leaving volunteers unable to continue searching for other victims before darkness set in.
“I have three boats staying next to these bodies because we don’t want them to drift and go elsewhere. Next thing you know, you can’t recover the bodies.”
Mohamed questioned why several Coast Guard vessels remained stationed near the wreck site while, he alleged, bodies that had already been located elsewhere were left waiting to be recovered.
“They have about five Coast Guard boats where the MV Barima went down. I don’t know why they got all these boats out there for. What is the purpose? We need the Coast Guard boats to come out here so that we can retrieve all these bodies because night is stepping in.”
He argued that the delay cost the operation valuable time.
“We could have been searching and recovering more bodies.”
Mohamed also claimed that one of the civilian volunteers assisting the recovery effort was arrested.
“We’ve had one of my friends with one of our boats, I supplied the gasoline, who’s part of the search-and-recovery team. Can you believe they arrested him? If you want to arrest persons that want to help recover these bodies, that alone speaks volumes.”
The Opposition Leader said his team had body bags, gloves, masks and other protective equipment and was prepared to recover the victims safely, but was not permitted to transport them to Charity.
“I have everything to retrieve the bodies. We have the body bags, gloves, masks, but they don’t want me to collect the bodies to carry them to Charity. I understand the rules. I will follow all the rules, but you can’t have us out here two hours.”
Mohamed said families of the missing were calling him constantly for updates.
“The families are mourning. They’re calling me all the time. They want to know what’s going on. They want to know where the bodies are.”
Among those still missing at the time, he noted, was a two-year-old girl.
“The two-year-old baby girl is still out there.”
Appealing directly to Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Omar Khan, Mohamed urged authorities to deploy recovery assets where they were most urgently needed.
“I expect the Chief of Staff to come out here and coordinate things so we can recover these bodies.”
He ended with a plea to improve the pace of the recovery effort before darkness halted operations.
“I’m calling on the Chief of Staff to please put systems in place so that we can retrieve the maximum amount of bodies so that the families can get some sort of relief. They are already suffering. They’re grieving.”
More than two hours after going live and making that appeal, Mohamed announced that the bodies had finally been collected by government authorities after what he described as several hours of waiting, bringing at least some measure of relief to the recovery teams and the families anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.
Mohamed’s allegations come as public scrutiny intensifies over every aspect of the MV Barima disaster—from the discrepancy between the official passenger manifest and the number of people actually aboard, to the emergency response after distress signals were reportedly sent, and now the pace and coordination of the search-and-recovery operation. For families still waiting to bring their loved ones home, each hour lost has only deepened the anguish.
