Nineteen people are believed to have been killed after a river boat carrying 26 passengers including small children capsized in a remote region of northern Ethiopia on Saturday, July 27.
State-owned media confirmed that the wooden-hulled vessel was transporting a group that was traveling to a funeral via the Tekeze River in Amhara, a war-torn region over 300 kilometres north of the capital Addis Ababa, when the incident occurred at around 12:00 local time on Saturday.
Rescuers later pulled seven survivors and the bodies of two deceased individuals, both confirmed as passengers on the ill-fated boat, from the surrounding waters. The survivors, including a small child who suffered serious injuries, have since been brought to hospital for treatment.
Initial reports stated that the boat capsized after it was hit by a flash flood. However, the BBC and other foreign news outlets said that the other details of the incident and the subsequent search and rescue/recovery operation are not yet available, as media access in this region of the country is heavily restricted by the local authorities.
