At least 15 dead, 27 missing after overloaded ferry capsizes on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba
By Nana Karikari, Senior Global Affairs Correspondent
At least 15 people died and 27 remain missing after an overloaded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Rescue operations remain active on the water as the national disaster management agency confirms the unfolding crisis. Seventy-seven passengers survived the sinking by reaching a small island on the lake. Rescue boats were dispatched to transport those survivors back to the mainland. State broadcaster ZBC published video footage of speedboats moving toward the overturned hull while a helicopter hovered overhead. An underwater search and rescue team deployed to the massive reservoir.
Vessel Capacity And Passenger Discrepancies
Police initially stated that ninety passengers and five crew members were onboard the vessel. Other reports pointed to higher numbers based on ticket sales before a strong wave struck and overturned the craft. Online footage shows the hull floating in the water. The Zimbabwe Civil Protection Unit stated that registered ticket sales showed one hundred fourteen adults onboard alongside five crew members. An unknown number of children below ticketing age may have been on the vessel without appearing in official counts. The boat maintained a carrying capacity of only ninety people, prompting officials to recommend that the accident be officially declared a disaster.
Community Impact And Critical Questions
Lake Kariba straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia as the largest man-made lake in the world by volume. The reservoir was created in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties when builders blocked the Zambezi River with a dam wall. A valley slowly filled with water to form the huge lake that extends more than two hundred kilometers long and reaches up to forty kilometers wide in places. The official border between Zimbabwe and Zambia runs directly through the middle of the lake.
Local residents use the ageing ferry to travel across the water to Kariba town on a journey that takes about five hours. Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of parliament, posted a video on social media showing people on shore waving off the vessel at the start of its journey. Some onlookers expressed concern over whether the ferry could survive strong waves. Murombedzi raised pressing questions regarding the accountability of local authorities.
“We have very hard questions that require honest answers,” she wrote.
She also demanded transparency regarding the exact passenger manifest.
“The officials must release the correct number of people who were onboard,” she added.
Police stated that more details will be released in due course while two funeral parlours collect the recovered bodies. As search and rescue operations persist across the vast reservoir, the tragedy has intensified national scrutiny regarding maritime safety standards and regulatory enforcement on shared waterways.
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