At least 143 people died and dozens are missing by the Fire of a boat that transported fuel in the northwest of the Congo Democratic Republic (RDC), said April 18, concordant sources.
Hundreds of passengers were traveling on Tuesday 15 aboard the wooden boat in the Congo river When the flames began, said Joséphine-Paci -iqui Lokumu, leader of a delegation of national deputies in the region.
The disaster occurred in Mbandaka, the capital of the province of Equateur, at the confluence of the ROS RUKI AND CONGOwhich is the deepest in the world.
In a video broadcast on social networks there is a long vessel on fire, not far from the coast.
“On Wednesday a first group of 131 was found corpses. Twelve more were recovered Thursday and Friday. Several are burned, “Deputy Lokumu told AFP.
Joseph Lokondo, a local civil society leader who helped bury many of the corpsesreported a slightly higher provisional balance of 145 dead: some calcined, other drowned. “
The fire began when “a woman lit the coals for cooking” boat. “The fuel that was close exploded, killing many children and women,” Lokumu said.
“Without news”
The precise number of passengers who were aboard the boat is unknown for now, but they were “hundreds,” said the deputy.
Some survivors were rescued and admitted to the hospital, Lokondo pointed out. But on Friday, “many families were still without news of their relatives,” he added.
Immense country of the center of Africa With 2.3 million km 2, RDC has few practicable roads, so that many displacements are ended by the Congo river and its tributaries, as well as for the lAgos Kivu and Tanganyika.
The wrecks In lakes and rivers in the country they are often frequent with many fatalities. The chronic absence of passenger lists complicates rescue operations.
In October 2023, at least 47 people died when the vessel in which they sailed wreck Congoalso in the province of Equateur.
🇨🇩 | Urgent: The number of deaths for the disaster of a ship in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amounts to at least 143 people, with more missing tens, the authorities say.
pic.twitter.com/ff4pzvncec– News 24 alert (@alertaves24) April 19, 2025
More than twenty people died in October last year for another wreck at Lake Kivu, in the east of RDC According to local authorities.
That lake was already the scene in 2019 of a Naval accident That a hundred lives was charged.