At least 20 people die in Uganda boat accident

At least 20 people have died after a boat capsized in Ugandan waters on Lake Victoria.

The overloaded boat was believed to have had 34 people on board when the accident happened on Wednesday, the police said.

Nine people were rescued, they said.

The boat had also been “carrying bags of charcoal, fresh foods, silver fish among others" according to a police statement posted on social media.

They attributed the cause of the accident to overloading and bad weather.

Rescue efforts by joint police, military and local community teams were under way on Wednesday trying to locate the missing people.

“We appeal to members of the public who travel on waters to always wear life jackets and not to over load [sic] their vessels,” the police statement added.

Boat accidents are not uncommon in Uganda.

In 2020, at least 26 people died on Lake Albert on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Two years earlier, dozens of people died after a boat carrying about 100 party revellers capsized in Lake Victoria near the capital Kampala.

This article originally appeared on BBC News.

Image via AFP.