Chronicle Editor
A survivor has been found inside a capsized Tanzanian ferry two days after the disaster on Lake Victoria, an official said on Saturday, while coffins arrived for at least 209 victims and counting.
An engineer was found near the engine of the upturned vessel, Mwanza regional commissioner John Mongella told reporters. The Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation, which reported the new death toll, said he had shut himself into the engine room. His condition was not immediately clear.
Search and rescue efforts were ending Saturday so that the identification of bodies can start, Tanzania’s defence chief Venance Mabeyo told reporters at the scene. Families of victims gathered and prepared to claim the dead. No one knows how many people were on board the ferry, which had a capacity of 101. Officials on Friday said at least 40 people had been rescued.
President John Magufuli has ordered the arrests of those responsible.
“This is a great disaster for our nation,” Magufuli said late on Friday, announcing four days of national mourning.
The badly overloaded ferry capsized in the final stretch before shore on Thursday afternoon as people returning from a busy market day shifted and prepared to disembark. Horrified fishermen and other witnesses have expressed fear that more than 200 could have died. Pope Francis, the United Nations secretary-general, Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of African leaders have expressed shock and sorrow.
The MV Nyerere, named for the former president who led the East African nation to independence, was travelling between the islands of Ukara and Ukerewe when it sank, according to the government agency in charge of servicing the vessels. — Al Jazeera
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