Over 90 people, including children, died in a sinking incident of an overcrowded makeshift boat sailing to the Island of Mozambique, off Mozambique's north coast. 

Authorities revealed that the renovated fishing boat carried 130 people but could not withhold the weight, ultimately facing trouble as it tried to arrive at an island off Nampula province, and then sank. 91 people died including many children.

#Mozambique Shipwreck makes about 100 victims in #quissanga on the island of Mozambique in the #Nampula province. There is information that shows that they fled from Quissanga (Ilha Moçambique-Nampula), because of the outbreak of #cholera that devastated that region! very sad. pic.twitter.com/dzC4WgLiK9

— José A. M. (@Muianga) April 7, 2024

Rescue teams were able to find five survivors, two of whom were transported to the hospital to receive medical treatment, but the search was rendered more difficult due to treacherous waters. 

Nampula’s secretary of state, Jaime Neto, said that the passengers were trying to escape Nampula following rumors of a cholera outbreak. Contaminated regional waters have caused the deaths of 32 people since October and the diagnoses of over 15,000 cases of waterborne diseases. Nampula on its own accounts for a third of all recorded cases. 

Neto noted that a problem was launched to further investigate the boat accident. 

Cyclone Freddy plunges Mozambique into worst cholera in 10 years

Last year, the World Health Organization announced that as a result of the destructive Cyclone Freddy, Mozambique is experiencing its worst cholera outbreak in more than 10 years. 

Severin von Xylander, the organization's representative in the country, stated, "While cholera outbreaks regularly occur in Mozambique between October to April, with almost 21,000 cases and 95 deaths, this is the largest outbreak in more than a decade," adding that it is "expanding geographically."

Eight out of the 11 provinces in the country have been hit, but Quelimane is the worst-affected city.

"After the landfall of Freddy, the number of cases exploded from less than 20 a day and increased tenfold" in Quelimane, according to von Xylander.

In an attempt to tame the number of cases, the first cholera vaccination campaign was launched in February in which more than 715,000 people received a single shot, then March witnessed a second campaign of vaccines in Quelimane, giving shots to 410,000 people.

There is a current additional 1.35 million people targeted to receive vaccines. 

Read more: WHO: African countries need help fighting cholera