Over 90 people feared dead as boat carrying 90 passengers are 5 crew members capsizes in Lake Kariba (VIDEOS)

A major search-and-rescue operation was under way on Tuesday after a passenger ferry overturned on Lake Kariba, with police confirming that 90 people and five crew members were aboard the vessel.

The boat, identified in local reports as the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency’s RIDA Mbuyanehanda Ferry, capsized near Long Island as it travelled across the lake. Passengers were thrown into the water, and emergency teams began searching for people who may have survived the sinking or remained trapped beneath the overturned vessel.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirmed the disaster in a statement posted on its official account on X at 2:16pm.

“The ZRP reports that a DDF boat with 90 people and five crew members has capsized in Lake Kariba. Rescue efforts are currently underway with more details on the situation to be released in due course.”

The statement did not confirm how many people had died, how many had been rescued or how many remained missing. That distinction is important because early reports have carried sharply different figures, and the passenger list itself may not be complete.

The Herald reported that more than 90 people were feared dead, while also acknowledging that the exact number of casualties had not been confirmed. NewsDay later reported that at least 15 people had died and 74 had been rescued, citing information from the rescue operation, but said those figures could not immediately be independently verified.

The available evidence therefore points to a disaster of potentially serious scale, but not to a confirmed toll of 90 dead. The police’s first public statement established the capsize and the number of people it believed were aboard; it did not establish a final death toll.

Conflicting numbers complicate the search

A witness involved in the rescue effort told NewsDay that the ferry may have carried far more people than the 90 paid passengers initially reported. The witness said some passengers were not counted in the same way as ticketed travellers, particularly children, making it difficult for authorities to establish how many people were actually on the boat when it went down.

The witness told the newspaper:

“There were 90 paid passengers, but anybody over 16 doesn’t pay, so [we] assumed 154 on board. Sixty-three on Long Island [were] saved, 12 were picked up by a houseboat, which is on the way back to Kariba, seven bodies and about 79 people missing. Yeah, very tragic, not looking great at all,” the witness said.

That account is not an official manifest. It is also different from the police figure of 90 people and five crew members, and it appears to describe a fast-moving rescue effort in which numbers were still being gathered from different points around the lake.

NewsDay reported that about 40 children of different ages were believed to have been on board, with some still unaccounted for. It said children under four were not required to have tickets, while the witness account also raised questions about how older passengers had been recorded. The paper said the conflicting figures had created concerns that the ferry may have been carrying more than 100 people.

For families waiting in Kariba, the difference between a ticket count and a head count is not a technical issue. It determines who is listed as safe, who is taken to hospital and who is entered as missing. It also affects the work of divers and rescuers trying to decide where to concentrate their search.

Search teams deployed around Long Island

Local authorities, the army, the Police Sub-Aqua Unit and the Matusadona Conservation Trust were reported to be involved in the rescue effort. Water and Inland Department Lake Captain Adan Nyekete confirmed that the accident had occurred but said he was waiting for further information as emergency teams moved towards the scene.

NewsDay reported that police, soldiers and other local authorities were searching around Long Island. Its account said teams were looking beneath the overturned ferry for more bodies, while a houseboat was reported to have picked up some survivors and was returning towards Kariba.

The precise cause of the capsize had not been established. There was no confirmed finding on whether the ferry was overloaded, whether the lake was rough, whether the vessel suffered a mechanical failure or whether another factor caused it to overturn.

Any conclusion will depend on the recovery of the vessel, survivor accounts, passenger records and an examination of the boat. Investigators will also need to determine whether passengers had life jackets, how the ferry was loaded and whether weather warnings had been issued before it left Kariba.

The concerns are particularly serious because the ferry was reportedly carrying both passengers and goods on a route from Kariba towards Chalala Fishing Camp. A boat carrying people and cargo must be assessed not only by the number of passengers but also by the weight and position of everything on board. If the passenger count was higher than reported, investigators will have to examine whether overloading contributed to the vessel’s instability.

A history of fatal accidents on the lake

The latest disaster has revived memories of earlier boat accidents on Lake Kariba, a vast reservoir where fishing, tourism and transport all depend on boats. Previous incidents have had different reported causes, but they share a common danger: sudden changes in weather and water conditions can turn a routine journey into an emergency within minutes.

In September 2023, a dinkey boat carrying five people capsized near Tsetse Island around midday. One occupant was rescued by fishermen after being found clinging to an empty container, while the other four died. Police later identified the victims as Sergeant Tatenda Nekati, Corporal Nxobile Ncube, Trust Phiri and Adson Mupiringano. Their bodies were retrieved on September 17 and 18 and taken to Kariba District mortuary.

At the time, ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said divers were searching for the missing men. Fishermen in the area told authorities that a large wave might have caused the boat to overturn, but the report did not establish that as the official cause.

A 2021 accident involved a smaller ferry travelling with passengers and goods from Nyaodza Fishing Camp to Nyamunga. NewZimbabwe reported that eight passengers were aboard, three were rescued and five were feared to have drowned. Two of the survivors were believed to be Zimbabwe National Army officers. The report said the boat sank at about 4am amid suspicions that it had been overloaded.

That earlier report also described illegal ferries as an important means of transport for commuters travelling between Kariba Town and the many islands along the lake. The observation underlined a difficult reality: for people living and working around the reservoir, boats are not only leisure craft. They are part of the transport system, even where safety standards and reliable passenger records may be difficult to enforce.

More recent incidents have shown that the risk is not confined to large passenger vessels. In June 2025, a fisherman from Nyaodza Fishing Camp died after a small boat used for setting nets capsized in strong winds. His colleague survived, and the body was taken to Kariba District Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

Lake Captain Nyekete warned fishermen after that accident:

“Fishermen should always check the weather forecast before venturing onto the lake and should not take unnecessary risks,” he said.

He added: “They should always adhere to all safety precautions to avoid fatalities,” he said.

In April 2025, two other fishermen drowned at Gatche Gatche Fishing Camp after their boat capsized following an attack by a hippopotamus, according to a report that cited Zimbabwe Republic Police and ZimParks officials. Their bodies were still missing when the report was published, and a Police Sub-Aqua team was said to be searching for them.

NewsDay has also referred to a 2019 fishing-boat capsize that caused multiple fatalities, although the later report did not provide enough detail to establish a reliable casualty figure. That incident is a reminder of the lake’s longer record of accidents, but it should not be used to inflate the confirmed facts of the 2026 disaster.

What is known — and what is not

The immediate priority remains the search for survivors and the recovery of those who may have died. But once the operation ends, the questions will become harder and more specific. How many people boarded the ferry? Were all passengers recorded? Was the vessel carrying more weight than it could safely handle? Were life jackets available and being used? What weather conditions were present near Long Island? And did the ferry have the equipment and crew needed for a busy crossing on a large and unpredictable lake?

Those questions are not accusations. They are the basic facts needed to understand how the tragedy happened and how a similar loss of life might be prevented.

For now, the most responsible account is also the clearest: a ferry carrying at least 90 people and five crew members overturned on Lake Kariba; a rescue operation is under way; reports of deaths and survivors are emerging but remain inconsistent; and the final number of victims is not yet known.