At least 94 dead in Mozambique after unlicensed ferry boat capsizes

April 08, 2024

At least 94 dead in Mozambique after unlicensed ferry boat capsizes

Mozambique The death toll from a make shift ferry boat that capsized off the northern coast of Mozambique on Sunday has climbed to nearly 100.

The boat was an overloaded fishing boat and was not licensed to transport people, Lourenco Machado, an administrator of INSTRASMAR, said on state television on Monday.

• “As a consequence we see a shipwreck, which resulted in 91 deaths reported yesterday, and at around 23 hrs (11pm local time), we found another three bodies, totalling 94, and this morning we found two more bodies.”

The boat was ferrying people from Lunga in Nampula province to Mozambique Island, he said, adding that initial reports indicated that it was hit by a tidal wave

The passengers were fleeing a cholera outbreak, said state broadcaster TVM, citing another local maritime administrator.

Jaime Neto, secretary of state for Nampula province, also said that the passengers were fleeing cholera, according to the BBC.

• “Because the boat was overcrowded and unsuited to carry passengers, it ended up sinking,” he told the BBC, adding that many children were among the dead.

The deaths included children and have at least 26 persons still missing according to local media. There were 130 people on the ferry and eleven had been hospitalised according to the administrator of the Island of Mozambique, told state-run Radio Mozambique.

Some people had been traveling to attend a fair while others were trying to “flee from Lunga to the Island of Mozambique for fear of being contaminated by cholera, which has affected that region in recent days,” the online outlet reported.

• “I lost my brother’s children, of my second mother (step-mother). Because of this sinking of the ferry there in Quissanga, which was leaving Lunga, to come here, because of cholera” said Amade Juma, a victim’s uncle.

This’s a developing story…