A pirogue carrying seven people, including teachers, capsized on Saturday morning on the Maroni River near Grand-Santi in French Guiana. Three occupants were rescued, but four remain missing. Intensive searches are underway with helicopter and diver support.
On Saturday, January 31, 2026, around 6:15 a.m. local time (10:15 a.m. in Paris), a pirogue capsized on the Maroni River, at the border between French Guiana and Suriname, near the town of Grand-Santi. The boat was carrying seven people, mainly teachers returning from a private trip. According to the gendarmerie, the boatman and two teachers managed to swim to the shore, while four others remain unaccounted for, as stated by the prefecture on the social network X. The exact circumstances of the accident are unknown, and authorities have not specified whether the passengers were wearing life jackets, which have been mandatory since January 1 in French Guiana for such vessels. This remote upstream area of the Maroni is only accessible by pirogue due to the lack of road connections to the coast. A similar incident in June 2025 on the same river resulted in the deaths of seven people, including three children. Search operations have involved about 30 rescuers, including divers, on around ten pirogues, supported by a Dragon helicopter from civil security and another aircraft, as announced by Prefect Antoine Poussier during a press briefing in Cayenne. The searches were halted at sunset to resume at dawn on Sunday. Cayenne's public prosecutor, Aline Clérot, has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the disappearance, noting that the three survivors had not yet been interviewed that afternoon. The rector of the Guiana academy, Guillaume Gellé, plans to visit the educational community in Grand-Santi on Monday. Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou is closely following the situation, according to her services.
