Ferry sinks off Mozambique, leaving at least 98 dead

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

The ferry with an estimated 130 people aboard sank Sunday after departing for the Island of Mozambique. 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 seven bodies were found Monday, bringing the toll to 98, the Noticias newspaper quoted Nauaito as saying.

Maritime authorities continued to search for 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, he said.

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

Noticias said the boat was ordinarily used for fishing and that residents of the town of Lunga were trying to flee what they believed was a flare-up in cases of cholera, which the country has battled in recent months.

They wanted to reach the Island of Mozambique and departed “in a stampede” using boats “unsuitable for navigation,” the newspaper reported.

Some people managed to reach the island but died there after not being able to get medical help, the newspaper said. National public broadcaster Television of Mozambique said the bodies of two children remained uncollected at a morgue.

Authorities in Mozambique and neighboring countries have been trying to contain a deadly cholera outbreak that has spread in recent months.

Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has recorded 32 deaths from about 15,000 cholera cases since late last year. Nampula is the province that has been hit hardest, with more than 5,000 cholera cases and 12 deaths, according to government data.

Many areas of Mozambique are accessible only by boats, which are often overcrowded. The country has a poor road network, and some areas are unreachable by land or air.

Mutsaka writes for the Associated Press.