MV Mwongozo

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Career (Tanzania)

Launched:	1979
In service:	to present
Homeport:	Kigoma, Tanzania
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ferry
Capacity:	800 passsengers 80 tons cargo

MV Mwongozo is a mixed passenger / cargo ship on Lake Tanganyika. She was built on the lake in 1979 by a Finnish company and carries up to 800 passengers and 80 tones of cargo. Her original route was a weekly return route from Bujumbura, Burundi to Mpulungu, Zambia, stopping at Kigoma, Tanzania and various small settlements down the Tanzanian coast of the lake. Her accommodation includes open sleeping areas and individual cabins and she has a dining room for passengers. She can take cars and small trucks on her forward deck.

Regional instabilities during the early 2000s lead to an increase of piracy on Lake Tanganyika. In 2001 and 2002 Mwongozo was attacked twice by pirates resulting in thousands of dollars of loss to passengers and substantial damage to the hull, requiring extensive repairs. Service between between Kigoma and Bujumbura was suspended for a year after the second attack. ^[1] ^[2]

She now normally plies a daily route from Kigoma to Bujumbura and return. The journey takes about 14 hours. The other passenger / cargo ship on Lake Tanganyika, the MV Liemba, now undertakes the route to Zambia.