Lake Victoria boat capsizes, 30 Ugandan traders die

KAMPALA, June 2 (Reuters) - At least 30 Ugandan traders died and about 20 were missing after their overloaded boat capsized on Lake Victoria in a storm, Ugandan police said today.

All the passengers were traders taking goods to market when bad weather struck late yesterday and their vessel sank off the shore of southeastern Uganda's Bugiri District.

''Thirty people are confirmed dead,'' police spokesman Assan Kasingye told Reuters by telephone. ''We rescued 17 people and we are still trying to trace any other survivors.'' The boat, which Kasingye said was overloaded, had been carrying about 70 people, some 20 of whom were still missing.

Fatal accidents are common on Africa's biggest lake because of overcrowding and poor safety and communications equipment.

Last year at least 100 people died in accidents on Lake Victoria, which is bordered by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

More than 800 people drowned in May 1996 in the lake's worst shipping disaster when a Tanzanian ferry capsized.

REUTERS SG KN1917