Two children drowned on Wednesday when a passenger boat capsized after colliding with a fishing vessel in east Africa’s Lake Victoria.
Fishermen responding to distress calls rescued 21 of the 23 people on board the passenger boat and recovered the children’s bodies, Kenyan police said. The Daily Nation newspaper named them as Eda Anyango, 4, and Fatou Bensouda, 2, who were travelling with their mother to Kisumu.
Most of the passengers had been wearing lifejackets and were rescued by fishermen near Kiwa island. There were no casualties on the fishing vessel, which also capsized with four people on board. Both boats were retrieved from the lake.
The Kenya Red Cross took part in the rescue effort and tweeted photos of its team giving first aid and counselling to survivors.
#LakeVictoria Boat Tragedy Update: Red Cross team giving first aid to the victims rescued from the capsized boat. pic.twitter.com/VKQ0o0SjIS
— Kenya Red Cross (@KenyaRedCross) August 5, 2015
The accident happened at about 2am local time on Wednesday. Fishing boats are said to prefer Lake Victoria in the early hours of the morning because the waters are placid at that time.
Named after Queen Victoria, Lake Victoria is the biggest lake in Africa and biggest tropical lake in the world. It borders Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In 1996 the ferry MV Bukoba capsized on the lake, killing an estimated 800 people.
