Mozambique’s president travels to island where 98 people died in a shipwreck on Wednesday

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on Tuesday he would travel on Wednesday to Mozambique island, Nampula province, in the north of the country, where a boat sank on Sunday, killing 98 people.

“Yes, we are going to the island,” Nyusi told reporters at Nampula International Airport, where he is due to join Muslim Ramadan celebrations.

Following the tragedy, Mozambique’s Council of Ministers decided to declare three days of national mourning: from 00:00 on April 10, 2024 to midnight on April 12, 2024.

The Council of Ministers also decided to create a commission of inquiry to clarify the circumstances, causes and responsibilities in connection with the accident and make recommendations to the government, government spokesman Filiman Suaze said at a press conference at the end of the weekly. executive meeting.

Regarding misinformation about cholera that led to the escape of shipwreck victims, a government spokesman advocated an “intensification” of education and information campaigns among the public about the causes and treatment of the disease.

The United Nations announced today that it has sent a team to support Mozambican authorities and help survivors.

The accident killed 98 people, including 55 children, 34 women and nine men, while 16 survived out of the approximately 130 on board.

According to Mozambican maritime authorities, the fishing vessel did not have a permit to carry passengers and was not capable of doing so, and the people it was carrying were fleeing a cholera outbreak on the mainland and heading to the island of Mozambique, where the sinking occurred. about 100 meters from the shore.

The owner and person in charge of the vessel have been detained, Nampula police spokeswoman Rose Chauk told Lusa today.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi, who lived in Nampula province for many years, sent a government delegation led by Transport and Communications Minister Matheus Magala to provide “assistance and guidance to the survivors, as well as an investigation to assess the causes that gave rise to this tragedy,” – he said on his Facebook page.

Mozambique’s Minister of Transport and Communications said on Monday at a cross-sectoral meeting in Nampula to review the incident that authorities were “reflecting” on the sinking to ensure “it never happens again.”

The president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, opposition) Ossufo Momade, originally from Nampula province, was also “deeply alarmed” by the sinking and called for national mourning.

“We demand that the government declare national mourning and that this moment be recognized by the authorities as another sign of negligence and lack of public safety,” Ossufo Momade wrote on his official Facebook account.