Tanzania ferry toll up as victims are buried

TANZANIA was in mourning as the first dozen bodies from a devastating ferry capsize on Lake Victoria that left people 224 dead were buried yesterday.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa led “national funerals” on the island of Ukara, where the MV Nyerere had been coming in to dock on Thursday.

He spoke of “great mourning by the whole nation” as the first coffins were placed in individual graves, many of the victims unidentified.

The remaining victims were to be buried later or taken away by families wishing for privates funerals.

The prime minister said a memorial would be built on Ukara.

Hopes had faded of finding any more survivors three days after the disaster, even after rescuers pulled out an engineer on Saturday who had holed up in an air pocket in the upturned vessel.

But Majaliwa said divers would continue the grim search in the waters around the boat. The ferry would also be refloated.

He updated the death toll to 126 women, 71 men, 17 girls and 10 boys. Just 41 people survived.

Transport Minister Isack Kamwelwe said 265 people had been on board the ferry, which had an official capacity of 100 or 101 passengers.

The prime minister said initial investigations suggested overloading was one of the causes of the accident.

“We have already arrested all those people in charge of operating and supervising the MV Nyerere. Questioning has begun,” he said.

A broader commission of inquiry into the disaster would also be set up, Majaliwa added.

One survivor was an engineer who shut himself into a “special room” with enough air for him to stay alive until he was found, said local lawmaker Joseph Mkundi.

Kamwelwe said on Saturday that 172 of the bodies had been identified by relatives.

State television cited witnesses reporting that more than 200 people had boarded the ferry at Bugolora, a town on the larger Ukerewe Island.

It was market day, which usually sees the vessel packed with people and goods.

Witnesses said the ferry sank when passengers rushed to one side to disembark as it approached the dock.