The death toll from Tuesday's ferry capsize on Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba has risen to 68 after 22 more bodies were recovered Saturday, police said, with 18 children among the dead in what is believed to be the country's deadliest such disaster. The boat was authorized to carry 90 people but was packed with 114 adults, five crew and an unspecified number of children when it overturned in heavy winds.
Most passengers were villagers and fish traders from around the lake, which sits on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. The civil protection unit reported 77 survivors rescued, and hundreds gathered at a Kariba hospital to identify relatives before a public memorial and burials began.
Survivors described pleading with the driver to turn back after the boat began taking on water shortly after departure, and said many people struggled to find or use life jackets as it went down. The lake, the world's largest manmade reservoir by volume, has seen prior fatal boating accidents, including 26 deaths in Zambian waters in 2014 and five in Zimbabwe in 2021.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.