June 3 disaster: Victim recounts how she became paralysed after narrowly escaping death with her 2 children | Nsemkeka
As Ghana marks the 10th anniversary of the tragic June 3rd disaster, one of the survivors has shared a heartbreaking account of how she was permanently paralysed after narrowly escaping death with her two children.
On 3rd June 2015, a day etched into Ghana’s history as one of its darkest, an explosion at a fuel station, combined with severe flooding at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, claimed the lives of over 150 people and left hundreds with life-threatening injuries.
In an interview with Pulse News, Margaret Boafo recounted the events of that night and how her life was changed forever.
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She said:
It had been raining from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. I was at a friend’s place when I noticed the floodwaters rising. I suddenly remembered my two children were asleep at home.
I rushed back to wake them up and we moved to a nearby storey building. While we were there, we heard a loud explosion from the filling station, and soon the surface of the floodwaters was covered with fire. We tried to escape by going downstairs, but we couldn’t.
She continued:
The floodwaters eventually rose to the level of the storey building. The flooring was wooden, and a young man advised us to use another route to escape.
We waded through the water, not knowing what was really happening. But people were burning, others were dying, there were bodies everywhere, and many were severely injured.
Madam Boafo went on to explain how the incident left her permanently paralysed:
One day, I returned home with my children to clean the house. After doing all that, I didn’t even realise I had injured my back. Victims were told to come for medical care, but I never received any information. Because it involved my spine, I didn’t know what was wrong at the time.
Eventually, I couldn’t walk anymore and had to undergo surgery. Apparently, I had continued to fetch water even after the injury, which worsened my condition.
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She revealed that she was only offered a compensation of GHS 300 per month for a few months by the then Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Boampong-Addo.
Meanwhile, broader questions remain about the long-term support for survivors and the government’s commitment to disaster preparedness and victim welfare, ten years on from the tragedy.