Dozens dead as ferry capsizes off Mozambique coast

By Farai Mutsaka | Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A makeshift ferry overcrowded with residents reportedly fleeing a feared cholera outbreak capsized off Mozambique’s northern coast, killing at least 98 people including children, local media said Monday.

The ferry with an estimated 130 people aboard capsized Sunday after it departed the southeastern African nation’s coast for the nearby Island of Mozambique and at least 11 people were hospitalized, state-run Radio Mozambique quoted island administrator Silvério Nauaito as saying.

Most of the dead were recovered Sunday, but an additional seven bodies were found Monday, bringing the death toll from 91 to 98, the Noticias newspaper quoted Nauaito as saying. State TV showed what they said was the vessel pulled up on a beach a day after the tragedy, though it wasn’t immediately clear how it had been brought ashore.

Maritime authorities continued to search for additional survivors, Nauaito told the radio station, adding that “it is not easy to say with precision how many remain missing.” Government officials were heading to the accident site Monday to get more precise information, he said.

The Nampula provincial authority released a statement attributing the accident to the “use of a vessel unsuitable for transporting passengers and overcrowding,” Radio Mozambique reported.

Noticias, one of the country’s main and oldest newspapers, said the boat ordinarily was used as a fishing vessel and that residents of the town of Lunga were trying to flee what they believed was a flare-up in cases of cholera that the country has suffered in recent months.

They wanted to reach the Island of Mozambique and departed “in a stampede” using boats “unsuitable for navigation,” the newspaper reported. The boat capsized before it could reach the island.

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