At least 44 people were killed after an overloaded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe. The Guardian reported this, citing police, according to UNN.
Details
The vessel was designed to carry 90 people, but 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children were on board, Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit (CPU) said earlier on Wednesday, citing ticket sales data.
One crew member told national broadcaster ZBC that there were 153 people on board when the ferry capsized on Tuesday after hitting large waves. A passenger told ZBC that the vessel began taking on water approximately 30 minutes after leaving the lakeside town of Kariba, heading toward islands and fishing camps.
A specialized team of underwater rescuers was dispatched to the site, the CPU said, and search-and-rescue operations continued on Wednesday. At that point, the CPU reported that the death toll stood at 15, with another 27 people missing.
A boat sank on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, killing at least 15 people12.08.26, 12:38
On Wednesday afternoon, Zimbabwean police updated the death toll twice within 32 minutes in posts on the X platform. The first post said that 38 people had died, adding: "Bodies have been retrieved from the lake." It was then reported that 44 deaths had been confirmed so far.
Video published by ZBC on Tuesday showed several people sitting on the overturned ferry while at least four speedboats came to their aid and a helicopter circled overhead.
In addition
Lake Kariba is the world’s largest artificial lake by volume of water, stretching approximately 150 miles along Zimbabwe’s northern border with Zambia. It was created in the 1950s during British colonial rule, when the Zambezi River was dammed, forcing approximately 57,000 people to leave their homes. The Kariba Dam supplies at least one-third of the electricity of both countries.
Boat capsizings on the lake are not uncommon. In 2014, 26 people, 24 of them children, drowned in the Zambian section of the lake when a boat carrying them to Independence Day celebrations capsized.
On the Zimbabwean side, five people drowned in 2021, and another three are believed to have died in October 2023. A month earlier, a police boat capsized, although no one was killed.