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The death toll from an overloaded ferry that capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba has risen to 84, after rescuers recovered four more bodies on Sunday.
The ferry overturned on Tuesday in rough waters on the lake, which borders Zimbabwe and Zambia, killing passengers travelling between rural communities and the town of Kariba.
Zimbabwean police said in a statement that the latest bodies were recovered from the lake on Sunday afternoon.
“Police reports that the death toll is now 84 after the recovery of four bodies from the lake this afternoon,” the statement said.
Police added that search operations were still ongoing to recover people reported missing.
The ferry, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), was authorised to carry 90 people but had 114 adults, five crew members and an unknown number of children onboard.
The civil protection unit said it rescued 77 people earlier in the week.
With 84 bodies recovered and 77 survivors, the figures suggest that at least 161 people were aboard the ferry, although officials have not confirmed the exact number of passengers or how many children were on board.
The latest recovery follows the discovery of 25 bodies on Saturday, which raised the death toll to 72.
Many of the passengers were believed to be villagers and fish traders who depended on the ferry as a major link between communities around Lake Kariba and the town of Kariba, about 280 kilometres northwest of the capital, Harare.
Survivors have raised concerns about overcrowding and poor safety measures on the ferry.
Itayi Marumisa, a trader from Mola village, said passengers had warned the captain about the rough conditions but their concerns were ignored.
“I have been using the same ferry for more than five years, but this time it was different. There were so many drums of diesel, groceries and other luggage on board,” she told AFP.
Marumisa said the life jackets were buried under luggage, and fewer than 30 passengers could reach them.
“We could sense that we were in danger,” she said, adding that children were screaming while passengers became sick as the ferry struggled in the rough water.
She accused the government agency responsible for the vessel of failing to properly assess the situation and called for justice and compensation.
Hundreds of people gathered at a district hospital in Kariba over the weekend to identify bodies and search for missing relatives.
Lake Kariba is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume and stretches along the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
