Makeshift ferry sinks off Mozambique, killing almost 100 people

Harare, Zimbabwe — A makeshift ferry sank off Mozambique’s northern coast Sunday, killing almost 100 people including children and leaving dozens more missing, officials said.

“Five more (bodies) have been found in the last few hours, therefore we are talking about 96 deaths,” Silverio Nauaito, the island’s administrator, was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP. He said three of the five were children.

The Reuters news agency quoted Lourenco Machado, an administrator from the country’s Maritime Transport Institute (INTRASMAR) as saying earlier that about 130 people had been on board the vessel. Machado said the craft involved was an overcrowded fishing boat that wasn’t licensed to transport people.

Nampula Secretary of State Jaime Neto told the BBC that, “Because the boat was overcrowded and unsuited to carry passengers, it ended up sinking.”

Some people were 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,” state broadcaster TV Diário Nampula reported.

Other news reports quoted Neto as saying misinformation about an alleged cholera outbreak caused people to panic and board the boat in an attempt to flee.

Mozambique and neighboring southern African countries Zimbabwe and Malawi have been affected in recent months by a deadly cholera outbreak that authorities are battling to contain.

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.