East Africa: Five More Bodies Recovered After Lake Victoria Boat Accident

6 August 2023
Nile Post (Kampala)
By Kenneth Kazibwe

Five more bodies have been recovered by a combined force of the UPDF and Police marine units as well as local fishermen as the search for missing persons who were aboard a boat that capsized in Lake Victoria last week continues.

Following the recovery of 20 bodies in the early days of the accident, on Friday and Saturday, another five were recovered as the search intensified.

"Yesterday (Friday) we were able to get two bodies and as we continued with he search, by this morning, we were able to get more three bodies to make a total of five and have been retrieved and brought t our base at Kasenyi," said the Police marine unit commander, Ubaldo Bamunoba on Saturday.

All the five bodies were for females.

The recovery now brings to 25 the total number of people who died in the boat accident.

The police marine unit commander noted that they are in the process of identifying the bodies with the help of relatives before they can be handed over for decent burial.

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.

The Police marine unit commander on Saturday said the search will continue, adding that the team includes police marine divers, UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit and the fishing community that are navigating waters in search for more bodies since hopes of finding anyone still alive have diminished.

Relatives of those who were on the boat have camped at Kasenyi landing site with hope of having their loved ones found alive.

Read the original article on Nile Post.

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