More than 100 are still missing
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148 people died in a boat accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday. Officials say more than 100 people are still missing.
A wooden boat carrying fuel caught fire on the Congo River in the north-west of the country. Soon after that, the boat capsized . There were about 500 passengers on the boat. Rivers Commissioner Kompetent Loyoko said a man was cooking on a boat when the fire broke out. After that, many passengers, including women and children, who jumped into the river died because they could not swim.
According to him, dozens were rescued alive. But most of them were badly burnt . Rescue teams with the help of the Red Cross and provincial authorities are searching for the missing. According to Loyoko, the motor-driven wooden boat HB Kongolo left Matankumu port for Bolomba area near the town of Mbanda.
"The death toll among the 500 passengers was very high," Senator Jean-Paul Boketsu Bofili said on Friday, "more than 150 badly burned people are forced to survive without humanitarian assistance." Officials say night-time travel and overcrowding of ferries lead to accidents.
Congo's rivers are the main means of transportation for its more than 100 million people . Especially in remote areas with less infrastructure, there is no alternative to such transport . Hundreds have died in boating accidents in recent years. This is unacceptable,' the Guardian quoted Boffili as saying.
