Kinshasa: Thirty-eight people have been confirmed dead, and more than 100 are missing after an overloaded boat in Congo – full of people returning home to celebrate Christmas – sank in the Bushira River on Friday night, according to local officials and witnesses. Less than four days after another boat capsized in the northeastern region of the country, 25 people died.
It has been confirmed that 20 people have been rescued so far. The boat was traveling northeast of Congo as part of a convoy of other ships, and the passengers were mainly businessmen returning home for Christmas, the last town before the crash site, said Joseph Joseph Congolingoli, the mayor of Inzende.
According to Ndolo Kaddy, a resident of Ingende, “there were more than 400 people because it made Ingende and Loolo, two ports on the way to Boende, so there is reason to believe that there were many deaths”.
Congolese authorities have often warned against overloading and vowed to punish those who violate safety measures for water transport. However, in remote areas where many commuters come, many cannot afford public transport for the roads available.
At least 78 people drowned when an overloaded boat capsized in the east of the country in October, and 80 died in a similar accident near Kinshasa in June. The latest accident has sparked outrage at the government for not being able to take the convoy with a flotation device.
Nesty Bonina, a local government member and prominent figure in Mbandaka, the capital city of Equateur province where the boat sank, slammed the authorities for not handling the recent capsizing properly.
“How can a ship navigate at night under the watchful eye of river service agents? And now we are recording more than a hundred deaths,” lamented Mr. Bonina. The capsizing of overloaded boats is also increasingly common in this central African nation as many people abandon the few available roads in favor of wooden vessels that crumble under the weight of passengers and their goods for safety reasons.
Roads are often mired in deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block key access routes. So far this year, hundreds of people have died or been declared missing in such accidents.