Zimbabwe ferry disaster death toll rises to 72 as 25 more bodies recovered

Zimbabwean authorities recovered 25 more bodies from Lake Kariba on Saturday, taking the death toll from this week’s ferry disaster to 72 as rescue teams continued searching the lake for those still missing, police said.

The passenger ferry, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, capsized on Tuesday in rough waters on Lake Kariba, which straddles the Zimbabwe-Zambia border.

The vessel was carrying more passengers than it could safely accommodate when it overturned in the vast reservoir, in what authorities say was a rare accident that has become Zimbabwe’s deadliest ferry disaster.

“The Kariba RIDA boat accident death toll is now 72 after the recovery of 3 more bodies late on the 15th of August 2026,” the police said in a statement late Saturday. “Meanwhile, the identification of the bodies recovered today is in progress,” the statement added.

Earlier Saturday, the police announced a jump in the toll to 68 after the recovery of 22 more bodies. They gave no details of the new victims, but most of the passengers on the vessel were villagers and fish traders who lived around the lake.

Officials say the boat was authorised to carry 90 people but was packed with 114 adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children. The civil protection unit said on Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued.

‘Could not make it’

Hundreds of people gathered at the district hospital in the lakeside town of Kariba on Saturday to identify the bodies of their relatives and loved ones, Zimpapers media said in a clip posted on X that showed the queues. “So far today we have managed to take 22 bodies,” Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Muchechesi, commander of the boat regiment involved in the search operation, said in another Zimpapers post.

“We are confident that we will manage to retrieve all the bodies,” he said, adding that it was taking a while for the bodies to rise to the surface because of the cold winter weather. An emotional public memorial service was held in the town of Kariba, nearly 280 kilometres (175 miles) northwest of the capital Harare, on Thursday before the burials started.

Survivors said they had pleaded with the ferry driver to turn back as the vessel had begun taking on water soon after departing. A survivor told AFP reporters on Thursday how he had watched helplessly as people tried to save themselves as the boat went down, with his best friend and seven of his relatives among the dead.

“Thank God that a wave pushed the sinking vessel and we managed to climb on top,” Chance Siyamavhu said at the memorial service. “When the boat capsized, most of the people scrambled to get the life jackets, but most of them did not even know how to use them,” the 45-year-old said. “Most people could not make it.”

Lake Kariba straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia and is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume.