A boat overturned in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 27 people and leaving over 70 others missing. Rescuers were fervently looking for survivors, a senior government official reported Saturday.
According to Taylor Nganzi, deputy provincial governor, the locally built boat overturned late Friday in the city of Mbandaka in Equateur Province while carrying more than 100 passengers along the Congo River to the town of Bolomba.
A local civil society organisation called the New Civil Society of Congo reported that 49 individuals died in the incident, which it claimed was caused by an engine failure. The group's president, Jean-Pierre Wangela, told reporters that "everything started to sink."
"Already 27 bodies of victims have been removed from the waters (and) transported to the morgue of the general hospital in Mbandaka," said Nganzi, who further stated that a probe to find out the cause of the accident has started.
Families mourned loved ones who were among the victims as volunteers assisted rescuers in their search for survivors and bodies.
“We are supervising the search for bodies with the river services and accompanied by the victims’ families,” said Nganzi.
As a result of the extensive usage of makeshift boats that are frequently overloaded, boat accidents are frequent on the Congo River and the country's lakes. Due to a lack of decent roads and the fact that it is less expensive, the majority of people in the northwest of the country travel by river. To prevent accidents, the Congolese government banned nighttime travel throughout the nation, yet many people still do so.
(With agencies inputs/Representative Image/AP)
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