Buliisa District Police Commander Mr John Rutagira has said that so far 9 dead and 21 missing after a boat carrying a local football team and fans capsized in Lake Albert.
A total of forty five people from Kaweibanda village, Buliisa are feared dead drowned on Christmas day and 15 people survived.
Police has got information that the boat operator (coxswain) and most of the passengers were drunk by the time they embarked on the journey.
“They overloaded the boat. Eyewitnesses have told police that most of the passengers sat on one side of the boat making it lose balance,” Mr Rutagira told Daily Monitor on December 26.
‘Deeply shocked’
On Monday, the local football governing body, Fufa’s publicist Ahmed Hussien said he was deeply shocked by the disaster and was contacting the Kitara region football leaders for more details.
“My thoughts are with those who have lost dear ones, and the survivors,” he told TheUgandan via a phone call.
“I am grateful to the government and other actors who have mounted a rescue-and-recovery operation and are assisting the survivors.”
Lake Albert has a history of boat accidents with the most recent being the Thursday, November 17, a group of 21 people boarded the boat at about 5pm on their way to Kagoya Landing site in Nebbi District.
That was after another October incident where two fishermen drowned near a landing site in Kagadi district.
In March 2014 about 250 people most of whom Congolese refugees died when a boat they were traveling in capsized as they tried to cross into Uganda.
In August 2012, five people died in a boat accident at Sansio Landing Site in Buliisa District, while in August 2010, another boat accident claimed the lives of 33 people while 17 others survived while travelling between two landing sites on the same lake.
