One dead, 23 missing following hippopotamus attack on river boat in Malawi

One person was killed while 23 others have gone missing after a passenger boat capsized upon being struck by a hippopotamus in southern Malawi’s Shire River on Monday, May 15.

Local police said the unnamed vessel was transiting the Shire in the remote district of Nsanje near the border with Mozambique when it was inexplicably attacked by a nearby hippopotamus.

The boat then capsized and all 37 of its occupants ended up in the water. However, only 13 survivors have been accounted for as of Tuesday, May 16.

The lone confirmed fatality has been identified as a one-year-old boy and the only child among those who were on board the ill-fated boat.

A police spokeswoman told the BBC that officers are continuing to search the waters off Nsanje for any trace of the missing passengers.

Hippopotamus attacks on boats are common in Malawi, though such incidents often occur in the other parts of the country.

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