8 dead, 2 missing as ship sinks in central Mozambique

According to a report, the canoe-type boat was carrying a total of 12 people, most of them farmers, when it sank in the Zambezi River due to overcrowding. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

At least eight people, including six children, died and two are missing in a shipwreck on Monday in Mozambique's district of Caia, the central province of Sofala, Radio Mozambique reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the canoe-type boat was carrying a total of 12 people, most of them farmers, when it sank in the Zambezi River due to overcrowding.

The administrator of the Caia District, Nobre dos Santos, quoted by Radio Mozambique, said that after the shipwreck alert was given, the search for the missing began immediately.

This is the second shipwreck within the same month in Mozambique, following the tragic capsizing of a makeshift ferry near the Island of Mozambique in the northern province of Nampula, where almost 100 people died.Â