30 drown off Sierra Leone

At least 30 people are feared drowned after a boat capsized off the coast of Sierra Leone in bad weather over the weekend, Sierra Leonean and Guinean authorities said today..

The boat was carrying passengers and tonnes of merchandise between the neighbouring capitals of Conakry in Guinea and Freetown in Sierra Leone.

Guinean government spokesman Durus Yale Dore said he had reports of 30 deaths.Ibrahim Wurie, the head of Sierra Leone's maritime administration, told journalists about 50 people had died, though authorities had recovered only two corpses.