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More than 90 people died after a packed makeshift boat sank off Mozambique's northern coast, local authorities said Sunday. The converted fishing boat carrying about 130 people ran into trouble while trying to reach an island near Nampula province, officials said.
“Since the boat was overloaded and unfit to carry passengers, it started sinking. Nampula state secretary Jamie Neto said, “91 people lost their lives.” He said that many children were also among the victims. Rescuers had found five survivors and were searching for others, but sea conditions were making the operation difficult. Neto said most of the travelers were trying to flee the mainland because of panic caused by disinformation about cholera.
The southern African country, one of the world's poorest, has recorded nearly 15,000 cases of the waterborne disease and 32 deaths since October, according to government figures. Nampula is the worst affected area accounting for one third of all cases. In recent months, the province has seen large numbers of people fleeing a wave of jihadist attacks in its northern neighbor Cabo Delgado
– Mozambique Island –
Neto said an investigation team was working to determine the cause of the boat accident. Of the five survivors, two are undergoing treatment in hospital, the official said.
The boat was headed for the island of Mozambique, a small coral island that served as the capital of Portuguese East Africa and which gave the country its name. A trading post on the route to India initially used by Arab traders, it was claimed for Portugal by the famous explorer Vasco da Gama.
Hosting a fortified city and connected to the mainland by a bridge built in the 1960s, the island is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the United Nations' culture agency. Mozambique, which has a long Indian Ocean coastline and borders South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, was a Portuguese colony until independence in 1975.
Home to more than 30 million people, it is regularly affected by devastating cyclones. In March, at least one person died when an illegal fishing boat capsized off the southern coast. With nearly two-thirds of the population living in poverty, the country has pinned great hopes on the vast natural gas reserves discovered in Cabo Delgado in 2010.
But an insurgency waged by militants linked to the Islamic State group since 2017 has halted progress. More than 5,000 people have been killed and nearly one million have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began.
