MUZII – A four-month old baby drowned in the Zambezi River at Muzii in Kabbe South of the Zambezi Region last week. The baby was with her parents when they were trying to cross into neighbouring Zambia, reportedly to go and buy food, when their banana boat capsized.

However, sources alleged the boat was overloaded and it could not withstand the strong wind and this caused it to capsize.
 Police Deputy Commissioner Evans Simasiku confirmed the incident, but stated that he is yet to receive a full report about what actually happened.

New Era however learned, that when the boat capsized, the baby fell into the water and drowned, and few minutes later, her body was floating in the river. The baby was identified as Patricia Ngulwa, from Ngulwa village. Speaking to this reporter, the grandfather to the baby, John Ngulwa stated that the family was saddened by the untimely death of Patricia. 

“Her death is a great loss to the family,” said Ngulwa. He also stated it could have been better if she was buried at the village the same day she died, but because of the law, they were forced to wait for the police to transfer her remains to Katima Mulilo.  “By tradition, we were supposed to bury her the same day, but now we are forced to go and ask for assistance for the funeral arrangements in town as we don’t have anything,” he said.

The councillor of Kabbe South John Likando was disappointed the police did not respond on time. 
“The incident happened on Monday and it was reported the same day, but the police only arrived the next day, despite that they have a station at Ngoma and Luhonono,” said Likando.

Likando also appealed to the police to be patrolling the villages along the Zambezi River, in the area of Muzii, as they are a lot of illegal activities which takes place and some of them are not reported.  “Those people think they live in no man’s land, they cross into Zambia all the time to go and sell fish,” he said.

He also appealed to the relevant stakeholders to provide training to the people in flood prone areas on how to operate boats, as according to him, most of the accidents normally occur because of overloading and inexperienced boat operators.