HARARE: A makeshift ferry sank off Mozambique’s northern coast on Sunday, killing more than 90 people including children, local media reported.
The overcrowded boat was carrying 130 people and many of those who drowned were children, according to TV Diário Nampula, a local online outlet. The boat was operating between Lunga and the Island of Mozambique in Nampula province in the north of the country when it capsized, the report said.
Rescue efforts continued on Monday, as people were still reportedly missing.
Some people had been traveling to attend a fair while others were trying to “flee from Lunga to the Island of Mozambique for fear of being contaminated by cholera, which has affected that region in recent days,” TV Diário Nampula reported.
Other news reports quoted Jaime Neto, the secretary of state in Nampula province, as saying that misinformation about an alleged cholera outbreak caused people to panic and board the boat, which ordinarily serves as a fishing vessel, in an attempt to flee.
Mozambique and neighboring southern African countries Zimbabwe and Malawi have in recent months been affected by a deadly cholera outbreak that authorities are battling to contain.
Many areas of Mozambique are only accessible by boats, which are often overcrowded. The country has a poor road network and some areas are unreachable by land or air.
Mozambique ferry accident leaves more than 90 people dead including children, local media say
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Mozambique ferry accident leaves more than 90 people dead including children, local media say
- They were fleeing a cholera outbreak
‘Unofficial’ talks on plastic pollution treaty to begin in Japan
- “Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected
TOKYO: Delegates from around 20 countries will hold three days of “informal” talks in Japan from Sunday aimed at salvaging efforts toward a landmark global treaty on plastic pollution.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 toward an agreement failed, and a renewed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed in overtime.
A Japanese Environment Ministry official said that the “informal” closed-door meeting among “working-level officials” through Tuesday was not expected to result in any official announcement.
If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed.
Julio Cordano, Chile’s chief climate negotiator
“Japan is in a position of pushing for progress on the issue, and so is hosting the meeting,” the official told AFP without wishing to be named.
She added that “little progress” has been made since August, other than the election in early February of Chile’s chief climate negotiator Julio Cordano as chairman.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected.
“If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed,” he said.
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, with half for single-use items.
A large bloc of states wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
Countries expected to be present in Tokyo include big oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States as well as islands states Antigua and Barbuda and Palau, plus China, India and the European Union.
The UN’s environment chief told AFP in an interview in October that a global treaty remains “totally doable.”
“No one has walked away and said, ‘this is just too hopeless, we’re giving up’,” United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen said.
