MAPUTO: More than 90 people killed when an overloaded small boat sank off the north coast of Mozambique, said local authorities on Sunday.
According to the officials the fishing boat, carrying about 130 people, got into trouble as it tried to reach an island off Nampula province.
Nampula’s secretary of state Jaime Neto said as the boat was overcrowded and not suitable to carry passengers it sank. He said 91 people lost their lives in the tragic incident adding many children were among those killed.
Rescuers had found five survivors and were looking for more, but the difficult sea conditions were making the operation impossible.
Passengers trying to escape cholera outbreak
Neto said most of the passengers were trying to escape the country’s mainland because of a disinformation about cholera outbreak.
According to government data Mozambique has recorded almost 15,000 cases of the waterborne sickness and 32 deaths since October. Nampula is the worst affected area, accounting for a third of all the cases.
In recent months, large of people have reached the province fleeing a wave of jihadist attacks in its northern neighbour of Cabo Delgado.
Neto said an inquiry e team was working to find out the causes of the boat accident. The official said two of the five survivors were being treated in hospital.
The boat was going to the Island of Mozambique, that used to serve as the capital of Portuguese East Africa. The island is named as a World Heritage Site by the UN’s culture agency, UNESCO.
Home to more than 30 million people, Mozambique is regularly hit by destructive cyclones.
Almost two thirds of the population of Mozambique is living in poverty, however, the country has set high hopes on vast natural gas reserves discovered in Cabo Delgado in 2010.
