{"id":33988,"date":"2017-04-18T10:35:58","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T10:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/lake-malawi-boat-disaster-man-held-on-to-bag-of\/"},"modified":"2017-04-18T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T10:42:08","slug":"lake-malawi-boat-disaster-man-held-on-to-bag-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/lake-malawi-boat-disaster-man-held-on-to-bag-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Malawi boat disaster: &#8216;Man held on to bag of flour&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{A 67-year-old man has said he escaped death by clinging to a bag of maize flour after the boat he was on capsized on Lake Malawi.}<\/p>\n<p>Graciam Kondowe was among 54 passengers who police say survived after the boat overturned in stormy weather on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Five people drowned while 11 are still missing, police said.<\/p>\n<p>The boat was packed with worshippers returning from Easter celebrations when it capsized in the remote Rumphi district in northern Malawi.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kondowe told Malawi&#8217;s privately owned Zodiac radio station that heavy winds buffeted the boat about 15 minutes into their journey.<\/p>\n<p>The crew decided to return to shore, but the boat capsized before they could get back, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kondowe said he held on to a bag of maize flour which fell out of the boat, and eventually swam his way to safety.<\/p>\n<p>Eight of the 54 survivors are being treated in hospital after sustaining injuries, police officer Denis Banda said.<\/p>\n<p>Locals residents used canoes to rescue most of the passengers, Malawian journalist Joab Chakhaza told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Search operations are continuing for the 11 people still missing, but the chances of finding them alive are slim, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Boats are a common mode of transport on the vast Lake Malawi, and accidents of this magnitude are rare.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, 47 migrants fleeing drought and conflict in Somalia and Ethiopia drowned in the lake after their boat capsized.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-19432 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_95666706_malawiboat.jpg\" alt=\"Lake Malawi is one of the biggest lakes in Africa\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Source:BBC <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{A 67-year-old man has said he escaped death by clinging to a bag of maize flour after the boat he was on capsized on Lake Malawi.} Graciam Kondowe was among 54 passengers who police say survived after the boat overturned in stormy weather on Sunday. Five people drowned while 11 are still missing, police said. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33988"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33988"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}