The death toll from the ferry sinking on Lake Kariba, in Zimbabwe, grew even more tragic yesterday, Sunday, reaching 84 dead after more bodies were recovered throughout the day, police announced.
The passenger ferry, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, RIDA), capsized last Wednesday in the choppy waters of the artificial lake—a rather rare accident on this lake, on the border with Zambia—which is now among the deadliest of its kind in the history of this African country.
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Police reported that “the death toll now stands at 84, following the recovery of four more bodies from the lake” yesterday afternoon. In addition, they confirmed that “search operations are continuing” with the aim of “locating missing victims.”
According to authorities, the boat was licensed to carry 90 passengers but had 114 adults on board, five crew members, and an as-yet-undetermined number of children when the tragedy unfolded.
Civil Protection reported last Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued. Adding the 84 bodies that have been recovered so far, it appears that the ferry was carrying at least 161 people.
The ferry’s routes are vital for rural communities around the lake, as they connect them to the city of Kariba, nearly 280 kilometers north of the capital, Harare.
Last Saturday, authorities announced that they had found another 25 bodies.
Police officers involved in the search operation say they are confident that all the victims will eventually be recovered.
The number of missing persons remains unknown as of today.
The police have not released any details about the new victims. However, the majority of the ferry’s passengers were villagers and fishmongers who lived on the shores of Lake Kariba. It is not yet clear how many of the victims were children.
A survivor told Agence France-Presse reporters on Thursday that passengers had expressed their concerns to the ship’s captain, due to the high waves on the lake and the boat’s apparent overloading, but he ignored them.
“I’ve been taking this ferry for five years, but this time things were different,” as in addition to the excess passengers, it had been loaded with “barrels of diesel, food, and other luggage,” explained Itay Marumisa, from the village of Mola.
As for the life jackets, “they were buried under the luggage, and fewer than 30 people managed to find and put them on,” according to the 40-year-old merchant.
“We felt we were in danger,” she added. “Part of the cargo was sliding and falling from the deck into the water,” “children were screaming, most of the passengers were vomiting, but the captain seemed to be mocking” the passengers, she added.
The public agency that managed the ship “failed in its duty” to ensure the vessel’s safety, he complained. “We demand justice and compensation for the trauma they caused us and for everything we lost.”
Hundreds of people gathered over the weekend at a local hospital and stood in line to identify the bodies of their relatives, according to media reports.
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Source: APE-MPE
