The death toll from a ferry disaster on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba has risen to 37, after rescue teams recovered 24 more bodies trapped beneath the capsized vessel, authorities said Wednesday.
The latest bodies were retrieved by underwater teams from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) as the search and recovery operation entered its second day.
The 24 bodies were found beneath the ferry during an operation led by the Joint Operations Command, according to Zimbabwe’s state-owned Herald.
The latest recovery brings the number of bodies retrieved to 37, up from the 13 confirmed by police earlier Wednesday. Search and recovery operations remain underway, and the final death toll could rise further.
The disaster occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the Mbuya Nehanda, a vessel operated by the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), capsized while travelling from Kariba towards Chalala on the vast reservoir.
Earlier, police said 67 people had been rescued and taken to Mahombekombe Primary School, which was being used as a command centre for medical treatment and emergency management.
Questions over how many people were aboard
One of the biggest challenges facing authorities is establishing how many people were actually on the vessel when it overturned.
Police said the boat’s confirmed passenger capacity was 90 people, excluding five crew members.
But initial information given to the lake captain indicated that 120 passengers — 108 adults and 12 children — were travelling from Kariba to Chalala.
Investigators now believe the actual number could have been higher.
The uncertainty has made it difficult to determine how many people remain missing and could further complicate efforts to establish the final death toll.
The earlier figures reported by authorities and international news agencies had put the number of people rescued at 77 and the initial death toll at 15, with 27 people unaccounted for.
A disaster in one of Africa’s largest reservoirs
Lake Kariba, which lies along the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, is one of the world’s largest man-made reservoirs by volume and is central to the region’s fishing, tourism, transport and energy sectors.
The lake’s vast distances and remote communities mean boats are an important form of transport for people travelling between settlements and fishing areas.
The accident has also raised questions about passenger safety and the enforcement of capacity limits, particularly after reports that the vessel may have been carrying substantially more people than its stated capacity.
The precise cause of the capsizing has not yet been conclusively established. Initial reports indicated that strong winds and large waves may have contributed to the accident, although authorities have not announced a final finding.
Search continues
As divers continue searching beneath and around the wreck, authorities are also working to identify recovered bodies and contact relatives of those who were aboard.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police said earlier that it was still verifying the exact number of people who had been on the vessel and that further information would be released as relatives were contacted.
The recovery of 24 additional bodies is the most significant development since the accident and sharply increases the known human cost of the disaster.
With the passenger count still uncertain and search teams continuing to work at the wreck, authorities have yet to provide a final account of how many people were aboard, how many remain missing and what caused the ferry to capsize.
For families gathered at the command centre and elsewhere around Kariba, the search has become a race against time for answers — and for the recovery of those who have not yet been found.
