East Africa: Lake Victoria Boat Accident Death Toll Reaches 30

6 August 2023

The number of people who died in a boat accident on Lake Victoria last week has reached 30, authorities have said.

Whereas by Saturday morning the bodies recovered were 25, Police marine unit commander, Ubaldo Bamunoba who is leading the search mission has revealed that more bodies have been recovered.

"Three more bodies were recovered on Saturday morning and another two later in the evening to make it 10 more bodies recovered( to add onto the 20 recovered on Wednesday),"Bamunoba said.

He said the search mission continues by the police marine divers, UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit and the fishing community that are navigating the Lake Victoria waters.

The Wednesday early morning accident saw a boat carrying 34 people capsize in Lake Victoria.

The boat carrying charcoal, fresh foods and silver fish among others was traveling from Lwanabatya landing site in Kalangala district heading to Kasenyi landing site in Entebbe when it failed to negotiate heavy winds on the lake in the night and capsized.

The accident has been partly blamed on overloading and bad weather on the road.

It has been said that 10 people who were travelling on the boat survived.

Whereas the accident happened on Wednesday, three days later on Saturday, the search operations for mission persons on the boat were still ongoing.

The search operations were hampered by the bad weather including the heavy winds on the Lake Victoria waters which saw the teams slow down.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.