MAPUTO: The vessel was an overloaded fishing boat and did not have a permit to transport people, Lourenco Machado, INSTRASMAR administrator, said on state television on Monday.
The passengers were fleeing a cholera outbreak, state broadcaster TVM said, citing another local maritime administrator.
According to the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC), Jaime Neto, the foreign minister of Nampula province, also said that travelers were fleeing cholera.
“Because the ship was overcrowded and unfit to carry passengers, it ended up sinking,” he told the BBC, adding that many of the dead were children.
Videos posted on social media by X showed many bodies lying on the beach and several people carrying the bodies of children.
Mozambique and other countries in southern Africa have been dealing with cholera epidemics since last year.
