Emergencies
More than 90 dead in ship accident in Mozambique
In Mozambique, people wanted to flee a cholera epidemic on a fishing boat. (archive image) photo
© Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP/dpa
They wanted to escape a possible cholera epidemic and drowned when their overcrowded fishing boat was shipwrecked. It may have been hit by high waves.
When an overcrowded fishing boat sank on Sunday evening in the north of Mozambique killed at least 91 people. According to media reports from the country in southeastern Africa, the passengers are said to have fled by ship from a cholera epidemic in the Lunga region to an island in Nampula province in northern Mozambique.
The boat, which was actually only intended for fishing, could accommodate a maximum of 100 people, said a representative of the island administration on the STV television station. However, there were around 130 people on board. “The ship was not intended to transport people,” the official said.
The AIM news agency reported, citing a representative of the maritime authority, that the ship was probably wrecked when it was hit by high waves.