Adedokun Waliyu The death toll after a ferry capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba this week has risen to 68 after more bodies were recovered on Saturday, according to the police.
The overloaded passenger ferry, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, overturned on Tuesday in choppy waters.
Police said the death toll had risen to 68 following the recovery of 22 bodies on Saturday.
Most of the passengers on the vessel were villagers and fish traders who lived around Lake Kariba, which lies along the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Officials said the boat was authorised to carry 90 people but was carrying 114 adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children.
Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit said 77 people were rescued on Wednesday.
Dozens of mourners gathered for an emotional memorial service on Thursday in Kariba, a lakeside town about 400 kilometres west of the capital, Harare. The recovered bodies were subsequently buried.
Survivors said they had pleaded with the ferry driver to turn back after the vessel began taking on water shortly after departure, as the waters became increasingly rough.
Local residents said such accidents on Lake Kariba were rare.
Lake Kariba straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia and is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume.
