A 25-year-old fisherman identified as Yamikani Khembo has died after drowning in Lake Malawi on Sunday.

Mangochi Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, Sargent Amina Tepani Daudi said the canoe which the deceased and his friend were using was blown off by sudden heavy winds while fishing in shallow area.

“On this day, Yamikani went fishing along with his business partner Ulemu Frank aged 23 on their canoe but due to sudden heavy winds their canoe capsized rendering the two helpless as they were far from the shore,” Daudi told YFM in a telephone interview.

Daudi added: “Fortunately his friend managed to swim back to the beach but Yamikani drowned and the surviving fisherman mobilized a search party who found Yamikani’s body between rocks few meters from where he drowned.”

The body of the deceased was retrieved from the water and postmortem conducted at Monkey-bay Health Centre revealed that death was due to suffocation.

Daudi appealed to the general public to always put on life jackets when getting into the waters.

She also urged fishermen not to go fishing when the weather is unstable to avoid such incidents.

Yamikani Khembo hailed from M’bwana village in Traditional Athority Nankumba in Mangochi.