A two year-old boy has died while seventeen other people survived after a canoe they were in capsized in Mtete River in Mchinji district.
The boy was with her mother who is a member of a women’s choir belonging to an African Yakobo Church that hired the boat.
According to Police, on Sunday the boy Chisomo Innocent was with her mother Chrissie Kango whose Choir from Chalimba Church which is under Chandawe African Yakobo Church headquarters paid a visit to colleagues from Stambo village of African Abraham Church which is based in Lilongwe.
Mchinji Police Spokesperson Kaitano Lubrino said that the two places are demarcated by Mtete River and for the choir to fulfil their plans they had to engage and hire a canoe to facilitate crossing it as it had flooded due to heavy rainfall.
The choir which consisted of 23 members managed to cross the river safely when going but things were not the same when they were returning home.
At around 6pm when they reached the river banks, the choir found a lot of people waiting to be taken to the other side of the river but being facilitated by one canoe.
When their turn came the choir paid K1,000 and the first group managed to cross safely. During their second trip, the canoe picked 15 adults and three children but when they were about to make it to the other side of the river the canoe developed leakage and started accumulating water very quickly through holes and spaces.
This development forced the canoe to sink and got capsized immediately. Well-wishers hurriedly came to rescue them but it was later discovered that Chisomo who was on his mother’s when they boarded had gone missing.
Search for the baby was instituted and he was found on Monday floating by the river whilst dead at Guwende village.
A postmortem conducted at Nkhwazi Health Centre has revealed that death occurred due to suffocation.
The deceased hailed from Chalimba village from Traditional Authority Mabvere’s area in Mchinji.
Meanwhile the police through Mchinji Police Station are advising the general public to avoid crossing flooded rivers and ensure efficiency of any vessel before usage.
sad.