When Jean-Paul Ngayaberura boarded a boat to the market last Saturday morning, he did not know that he would not reach his destination. 

The boat, with about 25 passengers on board, capsized on Nyabarongo River, drowning 12 people. 

At least 11 passengers were rescued. The boat was plying from Kamonyi District in Southern Province with passengers heading to a market in Mageragere Sector, Nyarugenge District in Kigali.

The father of two was one of the survivors of the ill-fated boat.

The 34-year-old recounts how it started before the boat capsized just a few metres from the river’s bank in Nyarugenge.

The boat started the journey at 7:30am and went on without any hitch. Midway the journey, someone reported that the boat was not water-tight and was filtering water but it was not taken seriously. 

The passengers didn’t imagine this was the onset of a disaster. 

Before long, the boat was filling with water. They tried their best to draw out the water but got overwhelmed. And, as the boat approached the landing site, about five metres away, it deviated its course toward the middle of the river. 

Realising the danger ahead, all the passengers jumped into the water. 

It was a terrifying moment, and survivors were just lucky, Ngayaberura said, adding that none of them had a life jacket. 

"My survival was out of sheer miracle–everything happened so fast that I can’t recount exactly how it all happened,” he told The New Times.

"I tried to swim as I had some basics, but it was a struggle as I was wearing gum-boots. The boots sunk me at the bottom of the river, they are very dangerous in water.”

Ngayaberura recalls hitting sand and resigning to his fate. Then an idea occurred to him from nowhere. 

"I decided to take off the boots and that’s when I started to float slowly and, fortunately, I could spot open area.

But I could not remain floating as I was weak; I was forced down into water again and I struggled,” he said. 

"I saw a boy at the bank some metres away and cried out to the boy for help. ‘I’m really going to die,’ I screamed out in horror, but he could not come immediately as he was also scared of the water after surviving.”

The said boy was among the passengers on board.

The gravity in the water again drew Ngayaberura down and he found himself sinking. 

"As I crept, I hit a hard object and all my strength waned. I only used signs. I started to say goodbye to the world as I thought everything was over. 

"Then I felt the young boy holding my finger and found myself on the river bank; that’s how I survived.”

Ngayaberura was unconscious when he and 10 other survivors were taken to Kigese Health Centre in Kamonyi District for treatment.

He was later transferred to Remera-Rukoma Hospital for further treatment. 

"I felt general body weakness but now I am getting better,” said Ngayaberura, from his home in Taba Village in Rugarika Sector.

Celestin Nsengiyumva, the executive secretary of Rugarika Sector, and Djafar Habimana, the deputy executive secretary of Masaka Cell, said all the survivors have recovered. 

He said the boat occupants were traders taking their merchandise to the market, but it is difficult to estimate its worth since others died and the boat operator who would probably know the amount of luggage he carried also drowned. 

Ngayaberura said he is in a "great sorrow” as he lost his sister, aged 20, who was with him together with other four people he was to pay to help him carry cassava he was taking to Mageragere market. 

He said he was carrying 12 basins of cassava, with each weighing 20 kilogrammes.

Marine police are still in intensive search, from Sunday, January 4, to find the remaining bodies.

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