Comoros independence celebrations overshadowed by air disaster

Johannesburg - Annual celebrations to mark the independence of the Comoros islands on Monday took the form of a mass prayer rally as the country mourns the 152 mostly Comoran victims of last week's Yemenia airline plane crash. On July 6, 34 years ago, the tiny island archipelago, which encompasses an area about half the size of Mallorca, gained independence from France. One of the four islands, Mayotte, voted to remain part of France. The event is usually a festive occasion, with people thronging Independence Square in the capital, Moroni, for a military parade and other festivities. This year the mood was one of intense grief as Comorans struggle to come to terms with the loss of all but one person on board the Yemenia flight that crashed minutes before it was due to land in Moroni last Tuesday. A large crowd gathered in Independence Square on Monday, where the head of the nation's majority Muslim community led them in prayer, the republic's Al-Watwan newspaper reported. Most of the passengers were Comorans living in France returning for holidays or weddings. Given that Comoros has only about 900,000 inhabitants, most people knew or were related to a victim. The lone survivor, a 12-year-old French girl of Comoran origin who was on her way to visit family with her mother, was found clinging to a piece of wreckage. She suffered only minor injuries and has since returned to Paris. On Monday, Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi decorated the rescue worker who saved her with a medal of honour, Al-Watwan said. A joint search operation by Comoros, France and the United States has yielded no bodies of victims so far. Over the weekend, France's accident investigation agency picked up signals from the plane's black boxes, about 10 to 12 kilometres from the coast. France is sending a diving boat to search for the flight recorders, which could provide clues to the cause of the crash. Yemenia has rejected allegations that the 19-year-old Airbus A310 was in a poor state of repair and has blamed bad weather. The French boat is not expected to arrive for several days.