Newborn Dies in Shipwreck in Mozambique

A newborn baby has died when a boat carrying about 30 people sank in the Angoche area of ​​Nampula, northern Mozambique, maritime authorities said.

“This is a ship with almost 30 people on board. We arrived just in time to rescue the survivors and we had a newborn baby who died, who was accompanied by her mother,” said Temoteo Tambala, Angoche’s maritime administrator, quoted on Mozambique television this Wednesday.

According to the person in charge, all other victims were rescued alive, and they named the failure to observe safety measures and weather conditions as the reasons for the flooding.

“It was due to sea currents, not overcrowding. There were 30 people on the ship, but its capacity was 42,” said sailor Saide Ussene.

Maritime authorities said surveillance in the region had been stepped up to prevent further incidents.

“Our inspection consists of checking the capacity on the passenger vessel and for fishermen [o controlo] the amount of cargo transported in order to avoid shipwreck scenarios,” concluded maritime administrator Angoche.

In the same province, at least 98 people died in a shipwreck that occurred on April 7 when a fishing boat left Lunga in Mossuril district bound for Mozambique Island.

Of the 98 people who died there, 55 were children, 34 women and nine men, with 16 survivors recorded.

The Council of Ministers declared three days of national mourning following the accident, with several of Mozambique’s partner countries expressing solidarity in the face of the tragedy.

According to Nampula maritime authorities, the fishing vessel carrying 130 people was not authorized to carry passengers and was not capable of doing so, and the people it was carrying were fleeing a cholera outbreak on the mainland.