Tanzania Ferry Capsizes; Hundreds Die

A Tanzanian ferry crammed with passengers--many of them teenagers returning home from school--capsized in Lake Victoria early Tuesday, and reports from the scene said hundreds of people drowned.

Witnesses and survivors, in accounts relayed by news agencies and Tanzanian radio, reported that many of the estimated 600 passengers were trapped under the ferry after it capsized just off the port town of Mwanza, on the southern shore of Lake Victoria 600 miles northwest of Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital.

Confusion surrounded rescue operations, and it was uncertain how many aboard died. But even in the confusion it was clear that large numbers of people--probably more than 400--drowned.

Mass transportation accidents are common in sub-Saharan Africa. Ferries and buses--often long past their years of peak function--are frequently overcrowded and poorly maintained.

There were suggestions that both factors contributed to Tuesday’s accident. But government officials said the vessel had recently been deemed fit for service.

The steamship was near the end of a 110-mile, regularly scheduled trip to Mwanza from Bukoba, on the lake’s western shore, just south of the Tanzanian border with Uganda. Tanzanian radio and witnesses reported more than 600 passengers packed the craft even though government officials said it was supposed to hold only 441 people.

Some witnesses said in broadcast reports that the vessel did not have an organized ticket-taking procedure, making a precise accounting of those aboard extremely difficult.

Details of the accident and the number of those killed remained unclear in the often-conflicting accounts. But as the overwhelming scale of the catastrophe became known, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa declared a three-day period of mourning to mark what he called “a national tragedy.”

Tanzanian radio reported that the accident occurred when the steamship, the MV Bukoba, struck a rock and sank about 6 a.m.

The radio reported that only 40 people survived the accident. But spokesmen for the state railway company that owned and operated the ferry contended that more than 100 passengers were rescued by boats dispatched to the scene with rescue workers.

Many of the passengers were believed to have been teenage Tanzanian students heading home at the end of the spring term. It was not clear where they were attending school, but Tanzanians frequently travel to Uganda for secondary and higher education.

Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, covering 27,000 square miles, is the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, after Lake Superior.

Mwanza is a major port, from which much of Tanzania’s cotton, tea and coffee are exported.