Rumphi boat tragedy death toll at 6
The death toll for Rumphi boat tragedy has increased to six following the discovery, on Friday morning, of a body that was floating on Lake Malawi.
Rumphi Police station officer-in-charge Charles James Mpezeni confirmed the recovery of the sixth body and identified the victim as Irand Mhango of Masinga Village, Traditional Authority Mwamlowe in the district.
“Following the continued search, one body was found floating at around 8.55am at Mfulu, along the Lake Malawi and positively identified,” he said
Mpezeni said postmortem by medical officers confirmed that death was due to suffocation.
He said the search is still underway to trace the other people still missing.
Five people were confirmed dead while 54 survived after a boat which was carrying about 70 people capsized on Lake Malawi at Zunga in Rumphi District.
About 11 people were also reported missing. Efforts by the community and police to trace the missing 11 faced challenges, which led to the deployment of soldiers, including eight divers from Chilumba Barracks, to help in the search.
Meanwhile, Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) has given up on the missing people, but government, police and the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) said they could not be declared dead unless their bodies were found.
