Brussels - Two young Guinean boys who arrived in Brussels aboard a Sabena Belgian Airways jet this week carried a letter with a plea for help for their deprived and war-ravaged continent. The Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Louis Michel, said he was "moved" by the letter and would send copies to his European counterparts.
"Excellencies, sirs, members and officials of Europe," began the letter, in French, carried by Yaquine Koita (14) and Fode Tourkana (15). "We have the honourable pleasure and great confidence to write you this letter to tell you of the objective of our voyage and of our suffering, we, the children of Africa. We appeal to your kindness and solidarity to come to the rescue of Africa," it said. "Help us, we are suffering enormously . . . help us . . . We have war, disease, not enough to eat . . . There are schools, but a great lack of education, of teaching . . ."
Koita and Tourkana never got to deliver their letter in person. Their bodies were found early on Monday in the landing gear bay of the Sabena Airbus A330-300 where they had stowed away, when it landed in Brussels from Mali after a stopover in Conakry. Both had frozen to death. The letter was found in their clothing.