The death toll from Lake Tanganyika accident in which 70 people, including a newly-wed couple, were rescued has increased to ten people.
The accident that occured at Kigoma Region's Kalalanga village was reportedly contributed by laxity, according to Kigoma Regional Police Commander (RPC) Jaffar Mohamed and Kigoma Regional Commissioner Issa Machibya.
Mr Mohamed said the rescue effort by the TPDF men was still in progress, however expressing fear of retrieving more bodies as there are no proper records of the number of people who were in the ill-fated boat.
The RC on his part consoled the bereaved families and wished good health and quick recovery for the survivors. He urged Kigoma residents to take precaution when boarding lake going vessels, attributing the mishap and eventual deaths to overloading.
Mr Machibya directed the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA) to regulate marine transport in the lake, partly blaming the accident on the laxity in SUMATRA regulatory services.
According to the state-run Swahili daily paper, Habari Leo late on Monday ten bodies were recovered during the search operations jointly conducted by the police and the armed forces.
Local sources said the two boats were returning from a wedding ceremony with some 80 passengers on board.
Seventy passengers including the newly-weds were rescued according to the paper.
The Tanzanian authorities have been ruing boat disasters caused by over-crowdedness on the country’s lakes and the Indian Ocean.
In January 2013 a boat disaster on Lake Tanganyika claimed the lives of eight people with some twenty more reported missing.
Tuesday 14 October 2014
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