Date Of Article: 5/27/2002
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11 people drown
By: Joseph Langa
At least eleven people drowned in Lake Malawi in Nkhotakota around 6AM on Saturday when the boat they were sailing in from Nyamvu Island to the shores of the lake, capsized after colliding with a hippopotamus, police have said. Police spokesperson George Chikowi said the 11, most of them women and children, were coming from the island about five kilometres from the shores of the lake where they had gone to buy fish together with four others who have survived the accident. The eleven, all but one from TA Kanyenda in Nkhotakota include Jasten Phiri, three months; Anne Mwale, five months; Fanny Banda, six months; Alexander Ngunga, one year; Edward Phiri, one year and eight months; William Mwale, two years; Anne Nkhoma, eight years; Dorothy Banda, 17; Ida Phiri, 21; Nyankhamoza Banda, 29 andYasin Phiri, 45, from TA Mulumbe, Zomba. According to Chikowi, the survivors, Mercy Phiri, 23; Mercy Mwale, 25, Ernest Ngunya, 23 and Mrs Phiri-Nyabanda managed to bring themselves afloat and swam the remaining distance to the shore. He said the 15 people aboard the boat were all business people who sell fish at Matiki trading centre in the district. Said Chikowi, “They normally went to the island to buy fish from fishermen that camp at the island.’’ Chikowi is appealing to lakeshore people not to take children with them when going to the lake. In another development, a 28 year old cyclist, Biswick Lamusi from TA Khumba in Phalombe was killed by a vehicle on Saturday morning. Chikowi said Lamusi, an Illovo Sugar employee, was hit around 6PM on his way from work to Matiki Trading Centre and police are looking for the vehicle that did this.
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