8 missing after boat capsizes on Lake Malawi

Police have confirmed that eight people are still missing after a boat they were travelling in from Likoma Island to Nkhata Bay on Friday capsized on Lake Malawi.

Nkhata Bay Police Station spokesperson Kondwani James said 20 people have been rescued and no deaths has been reported.

He said: “I can confirm that 13 people have been found but the search and team is yet to find eight people. We are getting reports that some might have swam to the other side of the lakeshore. The cause of the accident is not yet known.”

James said the boat sunk about an hour’s distance from Nkhata Bay. Three passengers swam to the shore to alert people of the accident.

Nkhata Bay District Health Office spokesperson Christopher Singini said their facility received eight survivors of the accident and all were treated as outpatients.

“They had minor injuries. Seven were men and one was a woman,” he said.

The incident comes two months after another boat carrying 30 passengers capsized on Lake Malawi, killing about seven people in Nkhotakota District.

Last month, another boat with nine passengers capsized in Likoma, killing one person.

Nkhotakota assistant surveyor of vessels Chikumbutso Ziyaya told The Nation last month that the district has “a lot of unlicensed boats” plying their trade on Lake Malawi.

He said the drawback is that the district does not have the Marine Police to enforce the law.