Nearly 100 killed as makeshift ferry sinks off Mozambique

Nearly 100 people, many of them children, drowned off Mozambique when their overladen boat sank as they fled a cholera outbreak.

As many as 98 people were confirmed to have died when the makeshift ferry, believed to have been carrying about 130 people, capsized and broke up while taking passengers from Lunga.

Passengers said they were leaving their homes in Nampula province to escape cholera and intended to seek shelter on the Island of Mozambique, a small coral islet and ancient trading post that gave its name to the country.

Only a handful of passengers are known to have survived and locals were still wading along the coastline looking for bodies on Monday. A further two dozen passengers were reported to be missing.

Unverified footage circulating online appeared to show dozens of bodies covered by blankets lying on a beach.

James Neto, Nampula province’s secretary of state, said the boat was “overcrowded and unsuited to carry passengers”.

Mozambique has for the past two years been suffering its largest cholera outbreak in a quarter of a century, according to the United Nations.

Nampula province, one of the nation’s poorest areas, has recorded a third of the country’s cases of the bacterial, diarrhoeal illness.

Overall, Mozambique has recorded almost 15,000 cases of the waterborne disease and 32 deaths since October, according to government data.

Several other southern African countries, including Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia have also been trying to contain severe outbreaks in recent months.

The UN’s children’s body, Unicef, has in total recorded more than 230,000 cases and 4,000 deaths, across 14 countries in eastern and southern Africa since the beginning of 2023.

Health workers have been particularly worried by the unusually high proportion of cases proving fatal.

Mr Neto said that “misinformation” about a cholera outbreak had caused people to panic and board the boat, which ordinarily serves as a fishing vessel.

The Island of Mozambique held a trading-post on the route to India, initially used by Arab merchants, and was claimed for Portugal by the explorer Vasco da Gama.