Twenty-two people have died and more than 60 are feared drowned after a pleasure boat sank on Lake Victoriain Uganda.

The vessel carrying close to a hundred revellers sank during bad weather on Saturday in the latest deadly incident to affect passenger boats on Africa’s largest lake.

“Twenty-two bodies have been recovered and 26 people rescued,” said Asuman Mugenyi, director of operations for the Ugandan police, said on Sunday. “According to one of the survivors there were more than 90 people on board.”

The boat, on which party-goers were drinking, dancing and listening to music, sank a short distance from the shore off Mutima in the Mukono district, close to the capital Kampala.

Nearby residents said the vessel was hired out for parties every weekend and often overloaded with revellers.

The Mutima Country Haven resort had been converted to a triage centre and morgue on Sunday morning where police were collecting the swollen bodies of victims

Police spokesman Emilian Kayima said rescue efforts were continuing.

Lake Victoria is the site of many boat disasters. In September, hundreds died when the MV Nyerere passenger ferry sank on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya.

Source: The Guardian

BDST: 1537 HRS, NOV 25, 2018
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