KAMPALA, Uganda — Hundreds of solemn people watched Friday as body after body was pulled from a capsized ferry that Tanzanian authorities said was badly overcrowded and upended in the final stretch before reaching shore. The higher death toll was given to the Citizen newspaper by John Mongella, regional commissioner for the port of Mwanza on the coast of Lake Victoria, where the MV Nyerere sank on Thursday afternoon. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but overloading is frequently to blame for such incidents. The number of people confirmed dead after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Victoria has increased to 131, Tanzania's transport and communications minister said Friday. The MV Nyerere, named for the former president who led the East African nation to independence, was travelling between the islands of Ukara and Ukerewe when it sank, according to the government agency in charge of servicing the vessels. The deadliest such accident in recent decades was in May 1996, when around 800 people died after their ferry sank on the way to Mwanza in Tanzania.
At least 136 people are dead and more than 100 others are missing after a ferry capsizes in Lake Victoria, Tanzania.