Seven people died when a canoe capsized after it collided with a hippopotamus on Malawi’s Mtayamoyo River. The accident happened on Monday, but authorities are still searching for 17 people who were on board and fell into the water, which is teeming with crocodiles.
According to the news portal Malawi24, Nsanje Police spokeswoman Agnes Zalakoma said that among the fatalities is a teenager, while the rest are adults. The first confirmed victim was a child.
The official also explained that all the fatalities are residents of Chimzeti village.
Gladys Ganda, Nsanje’s deputy, said in a post on her Facebook account that “people crossed the river to the Mozambican side, where they engage in agricultural activities.”
The deputy sheriff explained to the Voice of America in the United States that “Mtayamoyo means ‘death trap'”. “Cross the river at your own risk as it is full of crocodiles and hippos and the canoes operating in the area are not motorized”he said, underlining that this event could have been prevented by building a bridge across the river.
The Shire River is the largest in Malawi, close to the border with Mozambique, and boating accidents are frequent in this country, where the lack of regular river transport leads many people to cross lakes and rivers in boats and canoes, sometimes in poor condition . .
Last month, at least five people were killed when an overcrowded boat capsized in the central Mchinji district.
Source: DN
