Twenty-two more bodies have been recovered after a boat accident in Zimbabwe, taking the death toll to ۶۸, police said on Saturday.
The ferry capsized on Tuesday on Lake Kariba, on the border with Zambia. An investigation has suggested it was overloaded when it turned over during heavy winds.
Eighteen children were among the people killed, Zimbabwe’s police said, in what is believed to be the country’s deadliest such disaster.
Most of the passengers are believed to be villagers and fish traders who lived around the lake.
Officials said the vessel was authorised to carry ۹۰ people but was packed with ۱۱۴ adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children.
Lt Col Joseph Muchechesi, commander of the boat regiment involved in the search operation, said: “So far today we have managed to take ۲۲ bodies. We are confident that we will manage to retrieve all the bodies.”
The civil protection unit said on Wednesday that ۷۷ people had been rescued.
Hundreds of people gathered at the district hospital in the lakeside town of Kariba to identify the bodies of their relatives and loved ones.
A public memorial service was held in Kariba, nearly ۲۸۰km (۱۷۵ miles) north-west of the capital Harare, on Thursday before the burials started.
Survivors said they pleaded with the ferry driver to turn back as the vessel had begun taking on water soon after departing.
Chance Siyamavhu, ۴۵, told Agence France-Presse: “Thank God that a wave pushed the sinking vessel and we managed to climb on top.
“When the boat capsized, most of the people scrambled to get the lifejackets but most of them did not even know how to use them.
“Most people could not make it.”
Lake Kariba is the world’s largest manmade lake by volume. It stretches more than ۲۰۰km (۱۲۴ miles) and is up to ۴۰km (۲۵ miles) wide in places.
It was created in the ۱۹۵۰s during British colonial rule, when the Zambezi River was dammed, displacing about ۵۷,۰۰۰ people.
In ۲۰۱۴, ۲۶ people, ۲۴ of them children, drowned in Zambia’s part of the lake, when the boat meant to transport them to independence day celebrations capsized.
On the Zimbabwean side, five passengers drowned in a ۲۰۲۱ incident.
