Ferry capsizes on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe leaving at least 15 dead and 27 missing

HARARE — A overloaded boat ferrying across Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe capsized on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and leaving 27 missing, the national disaster management agency said.It said 77 people were rescued and made it to a small island on the lake, with boats now being dispatched to bring the survivors back.Zimbabwean state broadcaster ZBC published video of speedboats making their way to what appeared to be an overturned boat on the lake as a helicopter hovered overhead. An underwater team for search and rescue operations was deployed on the huge lake, which forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia.The statement from Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit said it could only confirm through registered ticket sales that there were 114 adult passengers onboard, along with five crew members. There could have been an unknown number of children below ticketing age who were onboard and not accounted for, it said.The boat has a carrying capacity of 90 people, the agency said, adding its recommendation that the accident be officially declared a disaster.Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of Parliament, posted a video of what she said were people on shore waving off what appeared to be the ageing ferry, the “Mbuya Nehanda,” as it set off earlier in the day. She said rural communities use the boat to travel along the lake to the town of Kariba, a journey that usually takes about five hours.Murombedzi said the vessel was “hit by strong winds” as it made its way from Kariba to Chalala.”We have very hard questions that require honest answers. The officials must release the correct number of people who were onboard,” she added.Some people standing on the shore were also concerned if the ferry would survive strong waves on the lake, according to the video.Earlier, Zimbabwe Republic Police had said a rescue operation was underway and urged people not to speculate on the number of casualties.”The ZRP assures Zimbabweans and relatives of the Kariba boat accident victims that official information on the rescued victims, those injured or dead, will be released in due course after the scene management process is complete,” the force added.Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam wall to block the Zambezi River, resulting in a valley slowly filling with water to form a huge lake that’s now more than 200 kilometers long and up to 40 kilometers wide in places.Zimbabwe and Zambia share the lake, with the official border between them in the middle of it.