Mozambique: Authorities confirm five deaths in Beira sinking – Watch

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Mozambique: Authorities confirm five deaths in Beira sinking – Watch

1:57 CAT | 18 Jun 2025

Screen grab: STV

The vessel carrying on board, in addition to the passengers, 25 bags of rice weighing 100 kilograms each, sank on June 11.

The maritime administration authorities of Sofala, central Mozambique, announced this Tuesday that five bodies were recovered after a vessel that sank off Beira last Wednesday, after correcting the number of occupants.

“When the vessel sank, the number of passengers declared was 14, with three missing and 11 recovered, but during the search we were able to recover five bodies. This means that the information given by the person in charge of the vessel was not correct,” said Daniel Bango, provincial delegate of the maritime administration of Sofala.

Daniel Bango told journalists in Beira that the contradiction in the numbers stated occurred because of the disappearance of the vessel’s logbook in the sinking, dismissing any malign intention.

“All this material was lost at the time of the shipwreck,” he stated.

The shipwreck occurred at around 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, between the districts of Búzi and Beira. The vessel, in addition to passengers, was carrying 25 100-kg bags of rice.

Initially, three bodies were recovered – the number declared missing – but between June 14 and 15, two more of the boat’s passengers bodies were found on the city’s beaches.

According to Daniel Bango, the search and rescue operation has since been completed.

“We have called off the search as there is no chance of there being any more bodies,” he said.