Local authorities said the converted fishing boat, carrying about 130 passengers, ran into trouble, and over 90 of those passengers died as it tried to reach an island off Nampula province in northern Mozambique.
According to Nampula province officials, five of the 130 have been rescued.
Mozambique Ferry Disaster Kills 90 People
Jaime Neto, the secretary of state of Nampula, said that the boat sank because it was overcrowded and not designed to carry passengers, and 91 people lost their lives.
He added that many children were among the victims.
Rescuers have located five survivors and searched for more. However, the rough seas made the operation challenging.
Neto said that the majority of travelers were attempting to flee the mainland due to fear sparked by false information on cholera.
According to government data, the nation in southern Africa, which is among the poorest in the world, has seen nearly 15,000 cases of waterborne illness and 32 deaths since October.
Nampula, which accounts for one-third of all cases, is the region most severely affected.
The province has also seen a large influx of migrants in recent months as they have fled a series of Islamist strikes in its northern neighbor of Cabo Delgado.
Neto claimed that an investigative team was trying to find what had caused the boat accident. The official said two of the five survivors were receiving treatment in hospital.
Furthermore, the boat was headed to the Island of Mozambique, a small coral islet formerly the capital of Portuguese East Africa, giving the country its name.
A trading post on the route to India initially used by Arab traders, it was claimed by renowned explorer Vasco da Gama for Portugal.
In March, at least one person died when an illegal fishing craft capsized near a southern beach.
However, since 2017, an insurgency headed by fighters associated with the Islamic State group has impeded advancements.
Since the conflict started, more than 5,000 people have died, and almost a million have been forced to evacuate their homes.
UNESCO Lists Mozambique as a World Heritage Site
UNESCO, the UN body for cultural preservation, has designated the island, home to a fortified city connected to the mainland by a bridge constructed in the 1960s, as a World Heritage Site.
Mozambique, which borders South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania, was a Portuguese colony until its independence in 1975. It boasts a lengthy coastline along the Indian Ocean, with over 30 million people living there, and deadly cyclones frequently strike.
Furthermore, the nation, where nearly two-thirds of people live in poverty, greatly expects the massive natural gas deposits found in Cabo Delgado in 2010.
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