At least 15 people died and 27 are missing after an overloaded ferry capsized on Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba on Tuesday, the national disaster management agency reported. Seventy-seven individuals were rescued and reached a small island on the lake, with boats currently being dispatched to bring them back.
An underwater team has been deployed for search and rescue operations on the vast lake, which borders Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia. According to the Zimbabwe Civil Protection Unit, official ticket sales indicated 114 adult passengers and five crew members were on board. The agency noted that an unknown number of children below ticketing age may have also been on the vessel. The ferry’s stated carrying capacity is 90 people, and the agency has recommended the incident be officially declared a disaster.
Video footage showed speedboats approaching an overturned boat on the lake, with a helicopter hovering above. Local member of Parliament Mutsa Murombedzi shared a video of passengers boarding what appeared to be an aging ferry at the start of its journey. Rural communities commonly use this route to travel to the town of Kariba, a trip that typically lasts about five hours. Some shore-bound observers had expressed concerns about the ferry's ability to withstand strong waves on the lake.
Lake Kariba, the world's largest man-made lake by volume, was formed by a dam on the Zambezi River in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It stretches over 200 kilometers (124 miles) in length and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in some areas, with the official border between Zimbabwe and Zambia running through its center.