A boat accident on Lake Albert, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, left at least 26 dead.
A “strong wind” caused the ship to sink, a local official told AFP news agency.
Dozens of people were on board and at least 21 people were rescued, said Ashraf Oromo.
A navy officer said the lack of security and rapid weather changes meant that accidents were common on the lake.
The boat was traveling between two locations on the Ugandan side on Wednesday when strong winds blew and it capsized.
Rescuers did not expect to find any more survivors, Oromo said. However, the local media quoted the local chief who suggested that the search was underway
Both Congolese and Ugandan citizens were on the boat and were among the victims, Tchovidong said.
“Because of failure to comply with safety measures and rapidly changing weather patterns, Lake Albert has many accidents,” regional police navy officer Samuel Onyango told AFP.
An official said many of the victims were trying to return illegally to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to avoid the coronavirus restrictions that disrupted most traffic between the DRC and Uganda, according to the Associated Press news agency.
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Vital Adubanga, president of the Wangongo chieftain in the eastern Congo’s Ituri province, said night boats were banned, but the ban was often ignored.
Many of those on board were traders trying to reach a weekly market, said Adubanga, as well as Uganda’s website The Daily Monitor.
Lake Albert, the seventh largest lake in Africa, has seen considerable loss of life in previous boat accidents.
In 2014, more than 250 refugees died when a ship wrecked carrying many more people than its capacity.
And in another Christmas accident in 2016, 30 members of a Ugandan football team drowned in the lake when a boat sank.