The death toll from a ferry that capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba has climbed to 80 after additional bodies were recovered on Sunday, police said.
The overloaded passenger vessel, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), overturned on Tuesday in rough waters. Although authorised to carry 90 people, it was packed with 114 adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children.
The civil protection unit reported on Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued.
On Thursday, dozens of mourners gathered for an emotional service in the lakeside town of Kariba, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of the capital Harare, before the recovered bodies were buried.
Survivors said they had urged the ferry driver to turn back as the boat began taking on water soon after departure amid the choppy conditions. Locals told AFP that accidents of this kind are rare on the lake.
Lake Kariba, which straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume.
Source : Africanews
