Nine drown in Lake Tanganyika

Nine residents of Mpasa village in Kasanga division in Kalambo district, Rukwa Region, fishing in Lake Tanganyika are feared dead after their boat, ‘MV Ubinadamu’ travelling from Mpasa village to Mpulungu in Zambia capsized.

Those feared dead are Fadhili Nkambi (30), Audifance Miele (43), Shabani Kasogota (33), Linus Manyunyu(38), Kashindi Tantika(25), Venus Alberto(35), Geofrey Kazumba(24), Mwambe ntantapata (21, and Mathias Ulaya(20).

Confirming the accident, Rukwa Regional Officer for Surface and Marine Transport Authority (SUMATRA), David Chilagi said that the incident occurred on July 28 at around 17:00hours when nine fishermen set out aboard their boat to a cross border destination to sell their fish consignment.

He said that the boat which belongs to one Alberto Majaliwa encountered a peril in the midst of the lake and capsized, with passengers on board drowning them and their bodies not found up to now.

The boat was found after five days floating on the shores of Shumbu upon the lake in Zambia with nothing in it. Heavy boxes containing fish and other unspecified goods the boat carried had disappeared into the water.

The Sumatra official further noted that the cause of the accident was water current accompanied by lake winds touching off strong waves, with the boat failing to withstand the situation.

However, Chilagi noted that efforts to look for the passengers or their bodies is still going on and added that, his office is holding the boat which he noted was not officially registered.

The boat’s voyage to Zambia was quite illegal, he said, adding that “probably that is the reason why its pilot was voyaging along deep waters with a view to evade taxes of the valuable fish consignment it had carried from the TRA authorities.”