NAIROBI, Kenya — The death toll soared past 200 while a survivor was found inside a capsized Tanzania ferry two days after the Lake Victoria disaster, officials said Saturday, while search efforts were ending to focus on identifying bodies. The government’s chief secretary John Kijazi announced the rising death toll to reporters after President John Magufuli ordered the arrests of those responsible. The MV Nyerere’s capacity was 101 people but the ferry had been overloaded when it capsized Thursday afternoon, the government’s Chief Secretary John Kijazi told reporters. He was among eight engineers aboard the ferry when it capsized, and he’d locked himself inside the engine room since Thursday. Mnyika said overloading was “another failure of the authorities” and criticised “inadequate relief efforts as well as delays” in the rescue operation. It is not known how many people were on board the overloaded ferry, which had a capacity of 101, when it capsized on the final stretch before shore on Thursday afternoon as passengers moved around to prepare to disembark. Horrified fishermen and other witnesses have expressed fear that more than 200 could have died. Source: AP/PA Images

State television cited witnesses reporting that more than 200 people had boarded the ferry at Bugolora, a town on the larger Ukerewe Island, where it was market day when locals said the vessel was usually packed with people and goods. With a surface area of 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles), oval-shaped Lake Victoria is roughly the size of Ireland and is shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. In 2011, some 200 people were killed after an overloaded vessel — carrying more than 1,000 passengers despite an official capacity of 620 — hit strong winds off the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean.
The death toll of the MV Nyerere sinking in Lake Victoria, Tanzania, rises to 207. Several people are still missing.