The death toll from the capsizing of an overloaded passenger ferry in Zimbabwe has risen to 68, after the vessel overturned in choppy waters on Tuesday while being operated by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA).
A general view of Lake Kariba moments after a memorial service was held for victims of the capsized Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) passenger ferry at Nyamhunga Stadium in Kariba on August 13, 2026. JEKESAI NJIKIZANA / AFP
The death toll after a ferry capsized on Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba this week has risen to 68 after more bodies were recovered on Saturday, the police said.
The overloaded passenger ferry run by the government’s Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) overturned on Tuesday in choppy waters.
The police “advises Zimbabweans and relevant stakeholders that the death toll in the Kariba RIDA boat accident is now 68 following the recovery of 22 bodies” on Saturday, they said in a short statement.
It gave no details, but most of the passengers on the vessel were villagers and fish traders who lived around the lake, which is on the border with Zambia.
Officials say the boat was authorised to carry 90 people but was packed with 114 adults, five crew members and an unspecified number of children.
The civil protection unit said on Wednesday that 77 people were rescued.
Dozens of mourners gathered for an emotional service on Thursday in the lakeside town of Kariba, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of the capital Harare, before the bodies were buried.
Survivors said they pleaded with the ferry driver to turn back in the rough waters as the vessel had begun taking on water soon after departing.
Locals told AFP that such accidents on the lake were rare.
Lake Kariba straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia and is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume.
