Hassan İsilow
20 May 2019•Update: 20 May 2019
JOHANNESBURG
At least 30 people are feared to have died after a boat transporting football players and fans capsized on Lake Albert in Western Uganda on Sunday.
According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor Newspaper, the boat sank 300 meters after taking off from Fofo landing site in Hoima District.
The boat was reportedly transporting 50 people for a football match in the neighboring Runga landing site.
A community leader in the area, Godfrey Komakech said twenty people had so far been rescued.
“We managed to rescue 10 people instantly. When we intensified the search, we rescued 10 others,” he said.
Komakech added the survivors were taken to different health centers in the district for treatment.
Regional police spokesman, Julius Hakiza said the police has partnered with the fishing community to search for other survivors and also retrieve dead bodies from the lake.
Witnesses claim bad weather and overloading caused the accident.
Boat accidents have become common in the landlocked East African nation.
Last November, at least 30 people were killed when a boat transporting passengers on a pleasure cruise for a weekend capsized on Lake Victoria.
More than 200 people also died in September when a Tanzanian ferry sank in Lake Victoria that is shared among three East African nations including, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
