HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A makeshift ferry sank off Mozambique’s northern coast killing 94 people, including children, local media reported Monday.
Silvério Nauaito, the administrator of the Island of Mozambique, told state-run Radio Mozambique that the ferry sank Sunday afternoon and that the initial death toll of 91 rose to 94 after they recovered three more bodies early Monday.
He said that there were 130 people on the ferry and “94 have lost their lives and about 11 people have been hospitalized.”
“There are … around three other people rescued, but it is not easy to say with precision how many remain missing,” Nauaito told the radio station. He added that officials were heading Monday to the accident site to get more precise information.
The boat — operating between Lunga in the Nampula province and the Island of Mozambique — was overcrowded and many of those who drowned were children, according to TV Diário Nampula, a local online outlet. It capsized en route.
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.
Other news reports quoted Jaime Neto, the secretary of state in Nampula province, as saying misinformation about an alleged cholera outbreak caused panic and had people board the boat, which ordinarily serves as a fishing vessel, to flee the area.
Authorities in Mozambique and neighboring southern African countries have been trying to contain a deadly cholera outbreak that spread in recent months.
Many areas of Mozambique are only accessible by boats, which are often overcrowded. The country has a poor road network and some areas are unreachable by land or air.
