After Prospector 5 sinking, Papa Koumba Mboula calls for Mayumba worker camps
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Gabonclic
After an oil barge sank off Mayumba, Gabonese notable Papa Koumba Mboula is calling for onshore worker camps to improve worker safety and ensure the town benefits from oil revenues. In an opinion piece published by Gabonclic, he refers to five missing people and three bodies recovered, figures he attributes to the Prospector 5 accident.
Papa Koumba Mboula, a notable figure from the Nyanga Valley, is calling for onshore worker camps to be built in Mayumba for oil workers after the sinking of the Prospector 5, a BW Energy barge off the coast of the town. He is asking the Gabonese authorities to require operators to build these facilities, in an opinion piece carried by Gabonclic.
Mboula recommends housing, a clinic, rapid evacuation equipment and emergency response systems. He believes onshore infrastructure would improve staff safety and allow Mayumba to benefit more from offshore oil activity. In his account of the accident, he refers to five people missing and three bodies recovered.
The sinking also led to the opening of an investigation in Gabon and a call for an investigation by the RPM, the Gabonese political party which called for inquiries, on 26 October. Gabon’s ministry said the seabed may have collapsed, while a report published the same day said three Gabonese people were among the five missing.
