Three Guyanese missing after using Suriname footprint crossing
Missing – Sherida Hussein.
Missing – Alwin Joseph.
Missing – Harruni Babuni.
Kaieteur News – Guyana Police, along with National Coastguards and relatives, are on a search and rescue operation for three people left empty by a boat captain on a sand bank surrounded by water in the Corentyne River. The missing individuals have been identified as Sherida Hussein, 48, of 274 Pilot Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice; Babuni Harrier called “Dorris,” 75, a pensioner, of the Glasgow Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice and Alwin Joseph, of Village No. 65, Upper Corentyne, Berbice.
Based on the information provided to this publication by the police, 17-year-old Joshua Samaroo, Hussein’s son, made a report at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam, Berbice, on Tuesday around 02:00 hours, noting that he received a mobile phone call from his mother telling him she had been dropped off on a beach and that the water was at her waist level and that it was dark. He told police that attempts to call him back after the phone was off were in vain. Two other people were then found missing. The Coastguard was subsequently contacted, police said and a patrol vehicle was “activated from New Amsterdam to No. 61 along the Corentyne River.” Police said a boat and engine had been set up from Springlands, with members of Guyana Police and relatives who carried out checks along the Corentyne River coast, and a mobile unit was patrolling the vicinity of No. 61 to Moleson Creek in an effort to find the missing persons. Police said late yesterday afternoon that searches were conducted between No. 78 and No. 61 to find the missing, but they turned up empty-handed as relatives continued to hold on to hope the trio could lost alive.
Nadira Valdez, the granddaughter of the lost pensioner, revealed that she received a call from her brother that her grandmother who had left for Suriname in December 2020, was returning to Guyana on Tuesday night. He said they told her that “grandmother is coming over by boat and they tell me to stay here for grandmother.” She said shortly after she received a call from her mother saying “grandmother had died.” He added that a relative had gone to Beach No. 63 and was informed that relatives for the other missing people were already on the beach looking and had not found anyone.
According to Valdez, they don’t know who the captain of the boat is since his grandmother never traveled with him before but all we know is that a boat brings three of them including my grandmother and drop her off they say on the beach and then they say they leave them somewhere surrounded by water and that is the last we hear. “
Valdez said her grandmother wanted to return home and so decided to get on the boat that was traveling at night. Valdez said she was not too happy about that and told her aunt in Suriname not to allow her to travel at night but “she found, no one knew she was coming.”
The search is on for the missing.