Lake Victoria Accident

Lake Victoria Accident: At Least 30 Feared injured After Boat Capsizes Near Remba Island, Kenya heading to Sori.

 

Two children died when a passenger boat capsized after colliding with a fishing vessel in Lake Victoria in western Kenya.

A local official said fishermen responding to distress calls had rescued 21 of the 23 people on board the passenger boat and recovered the children's bodies.

There were no casualties on the fishing vessel, which also capsized.

The accident happened at about 02:00 on Wednesday morning (Tuesday 23:00 GMT).

A Kenya Red Cross team has been helping in the rescue effort and giving first aid to survivors.

Fishing boats are often to be found on Lake Victoria in the small hours because the waters are calm at that time, Kenyan media say.

Earlier reports had suggested the passenger boat was carrying 200 people.

But a local government official downgraded that figure to 23, and this was confirmed by a boat owner who responded to the distress calls.Both boats have now been recovered from the lake.

At least 30 people are feared dead after a boat carrying 200 passengers capsized early Wednesday in Lake Victoria near Remba Island, Kenya. In this photo, dated March 9, 2009, fishing boats move past the wreckage of an Ilyushin I-76 cargo aircraft that crashed into Lake Victoria shortly after taking off from Entebbe International Airport, 26 miles south of Uganda's capital Kampala.

Update as of 4 a.m. EDT: A boat that capsized in Lake Victoria was carrying 24 passengers and not 200, Capital FM Kenya, a local news network, reported citing an official. Two children died in the accident, according to reports.

“The bodies of the two children aged four and two years have been retrieved. The passenger boat was carrying 24 people while the fishing boat had four fishermen on board. Most of the passengers had life jackets and that is what helped in rescuing them,” John Omusanga, Homa Bay County commander, told the news station.

The boat was on its way to Sori in Migori County from Remba Island in Homa Bay County. An adult believed to be missing after the accident was found later.

Update as of 11:10 p.m. EDT: The Kenya Red Cross Society tweeted saying that it has sent a rescue team to Lake Victoria where a boat carrying 200 passengers capsized early Wednesday.

At least 30 people are feared dead after a boat carrying 200 passengers capsized in Lake Victoria near Remba Island, Kenya, according to Citizen TV Kenya, a local television network. The accident reportedly occurred early Wednesday.

Three bodies, of which two are children, have been recovered so far, local media reported. However, local fishermen at Nyandiwa Beach said that nine people were killed, Daily Nation newspaperreported. The cause of the accident is not clear, however, some local media reports said two boats collided resulting in the accident.

Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake and its waters spread across Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. About 5,000 fishermen die each year due to storms on Lake Victoria, according to a report last month in New Vision, a Ugandan daily, citing a survey by Makerere University School of Public Health in Kampala, Uganda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiky0Pg81wE