The death toll from Tuesday’s ferry disaster on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba has risen to 72 after authorities recovered 25 bodies, police said, as rescue teams continued searching the vast lake for more victims.
The passenger ferry, operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), overturned in rough waters after becoming dangerously overcrowded. The accident occurred on Lake Kariba, which straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
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Officials believe it may be Zimbabwe’s deadliest ferry disaster.
“The Kariba RIDA boat accident death toll is now 72 after the recovery of 3 more bodies late on the 15 August 2026,” the police said in a statement late last night.
A general view of Lake Kariba shorty after the Thursday memorial service was held
The police had earlier reported that the death toll had climbed to 68 after 22 additional bodies were recovered.
Authorities did not provide details about the latest victims. Most of those aboard were villagers and fish traders living in communities around the lake.
The vessel was licensed to carry 90 people but was carrying 114 adults, five crew members and an unknown number of children, according to officials.
Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit said on Wednesday that 77 people had been rescued.
Identifying bodies
Hundreds of mourners gathered at the district hospital in the lakeside town of Kariba yesterday as families waited to identify relatives and loved ones. Zimpapers media published footage on X showing long queues outside the facility.
“So far today we have managed to take 22 bodies,” said Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Muchechesi, commander of the boat regiment taking part in the search operation.
“We are confident that we will manage to retrieve all the bodies,” he said, explaining that the cold winter conditions were delaying the bodies’ rise to the surface.
A public memorial service was held in Kariba on Thursday, drawing residents to the town nearly 280 kilometres northwest of the capital, Harare. Burials began afterward.
A coffin with the body of a victim of the capsized ferry leaves the Kariba Hospital mortuary on Thursday
Survivors said they had urged the ferry driver to turn around after the vessel began taking on water shortly after leaving shore.
One survivor described on Thursday how he could only watch as passengers struggled to escape the sinking boat. His best friend and seven relatives were among those who died.
“Thank God that a wave pushed the sinking vessel and we managed to climb on top,” Chance Siyamavhu said during the memorial service.
“When the boat capsized, most of the people scrambled to get the life jackets but most of them did not even know how to use them,” said the 45-year-old. “Most people could not make it.”
Lake Kariba lies along the Zimbabwe-Zambia border and is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume.
