via Limpopo line re-opens – The Zimbabwean 24 February 2015
The Limpopo railway line, which links Maputo to Zimbabwe, re-opened to traffic on Sunday after a four day interruption caused by a derailment in Magude district, about 146 kilometres north of Maputo.
According to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias” the number of confirmed deaths in the accident has risen from one to two. The second body was found as workers were clearing the fallen wagons from the track on Friday night. The two bodies were taken, first to the morgue in Magude district hospital, and later to Maputo.
12 people were injured in the derailment, four of them seriously.
The train was carrying 24 wagons loaded with charcoal, and two carriages in which some 200 people were travelling, most of them charcoal sellers.
The train was travelling from Maputo to Chicualacuala on the Zimbabwean border when the accident occurred. The two carriages and 11 of the wagons derailed.
The Mozambican port and rail company, CFM, has set up a commission on inquiry to establish the causes of the accident. CFM has not yet announced any figure for the losses caused by the derailment.
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