Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a local official in connection with a ferry capsizing that left nearly a hundred people dead in the northern portion of the country earlier this month.
Ignatius Chiome, District Coordinator of the Kariba Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA), has been charged with culpable homicide over the August 11 capsizing of the ferry Mbuya Nehanda.
Chome, who remains in police custody, has not yet submitted a plea in response to the charge.
The RIDA-operated ferry was transiting Lake Kariba when it overturned after being struck by a strong wave.
Only 77 survivors have been accounted for while the bodies of 97 deceased passengers and crew were recovered from the surrounding waters in the days following the tragedy, making it the country's deadliest maritime accident on record.
Local officials believe the vessel was carrying as many as 180 passengers on her ill-fated voyage whereas she was permitted to carry no more than half that total number of people in addition to freight and five crewmembers.
The deceased victims included the vessel's captain, who had reportedly ignored a weather advisory warning of potentially unsafe sailing conditions on the day of the tragedy.
The ferry's age has also come under scrutiny, having been originally built in 1985. However, the government has insisted that the vessel had remained seaworthy up until the time of her ill-fated voyage.
Baird Maritime tracks global passenger vessel accidents in its comprehensive database, which can be accessed here.
