Seven fishermen recount desperate struggle to survive 12 days at sea

Seven Ghanaian fishermen have recounted how they survived nearly two weeks at sea after their canoe’s engine broke down, leaving them stranded without adequate food and drinking water.

The fishermen, who hail from Sekondi in the Western Region, left on a fishing expedition aboard a canoe named Second Chance on October 9, 2026. Their journey turned into a fight for survival when the canoe’s outboard motor developed a fault on the third day.

These seven fishermen are: Kofi Emmanuel – 32, Uncle Amoah – 45, Kwame Nkum (29), Kofi Aboagye (36), Doboa (35), Agya Badu (42) Kwamena Akyem (40)

One of the fishermen, 29-year-old Kwamena Nkum, said repeated attempts to repair the engine failed, leaving the crew at the mercy of the sea.

He explained that their food and water supplies were eventually exhausted, forcing them to rely on the fish they caught to sustain themselves.

“We usually spend five days at sea but this time, our motor became faulty on the third day. It just went off, we tried to fix it but it didn’t work. Our food and water got finished,” he recounted.

As their situation worsened, the fishermen adopted desperate measures to prepare their catch. After running out of charcoal, they resorted to burning wood from their canoe to cook the fish they caught.

Nkum said the crew also tried to obtain drinking water by boiling seawater in an attempt to reduce its salt concentration.

The canoe continued drifting, carried by winds and ocean currents, taking the fishermen away from their intended fishing grounds and into neighbouring waters.

Their ordeal took a different turn when they sighted land during the night. A crew member who was awake alerted the others, prompting them to use their mobile phones to establish contact with people onshore.

According to Nkum, they eventually received a call from a friend, Kingsley, which helped them reconnect with their fishing leaders and communicate their predicament.

The fishermen initially thought they had drifted into Togo but later discovered that they were in Beninese waters.

“We thought we were in Togo but we were rather in Benin. We had no food left. We were very hungry,” he said.

Their communication with people onshore led to contact with the chief fisherman in Benin, who provided them with food and water.

The crew subsequently received assistance from local fishermen and the navies of Benin and Togo, helping to facilitate their return to Ghana.

The seven fishermen were handed over to the Ghana Navy by a Togolese naval vessel at the Ghana-Togo maritime border on October 21, 2026. They were later transported to the Tema Fishing Harbour after the rescue operation.