“I don’t know how I managed to escape – I can’t swim,” says Muaziza Ambaraje.<\/p>\n
She was on board as Mozambique’s worst sea disaster in recent memory unfolded on Monday.<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old is a regular on the makeshift ferry between Lung\u00e1, where she was born, and Mozambique Island where she lives.<\/p>\n
“No wave took us by surprise, we didn’t hit any rocks, and the wood didn’t come loose,” she recalls.<\/p>\n
“Water got into the boat because it was overcrowded – lots of people panicked and started to jump into the sea.”<\/p>\n
Next, Ms Ambaraje describes a nightmare jumble of bodies living and dead, as she struggled to keep afloat. More than 100 people died in the chaos on Monday, including 17 members of her family.<\/p>\n
Her mother, father, grandmother, nieces and nephews all died, says Ms Ambaraje. She can’t think of any reason she was spared other than God’s mercy.<\/p>\n
They had been on their way to visit Mozambique Island’s popular weekly market ahead of Eid, says Ms Ambaraje, in what was meant to be a time of celebration in this Muslim-majority part of the country.<\/p>\n
“I felt completely broken inside,” recalls Momade Issufo, who rushed over to rescue people on Monday as soon as he heard the news of the shipwreck.<\/p>\n
“I saw bodies piled up on the shore – some were children as young as three years old. People were panicking.<\/p>\n
“I had no choice – as a human being I had to help. There were still people in the rescue boats, so we transported their bodies in my truck to their relatives’ homes.”<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old says his heavily pregnant cousin was among the dead. The ordeal has left him feeling depressed and unable to work.<\/p>\n