At least 143 people died and dozens more went missing after a boat carrying fuel caught fire and capsized in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Friday.
Hundreds of passengers were crowded onto a wooden boat on the Congo River in northwest DRC on Tuesday when the blaze broke out, according to Josephine-Pacifique Lokumu, head of a delegation of national deputies from the region.
The disaster occurred near Mbandaka, capital of Equateur Province, at the confluence of the Ruki and the vast Congo river鈥攖he world鈥檚 deepest.
鈥楢 first group of 131 bodies were found on Wednesday, with a further 12 fished out on Thursday and Friday. Several of them are charred,鈥� Lokumu told AFP.
Joseph Lokondo, a local civil society leader who said he helped bury the bodies, put the 鈥榩rovisional death toll at 145: some burned, others drowned鈥�.
Lokumu said the blaze was caused by a fuel explosion ignited by an onboard cooking fire.
鈥楢 woman lit the embers for cooking. The fuel, which was not far away, exploded, killing many children and women鈥�, she said.
Videos circulating on social media showed flames leaping from a long boat stranded far from shore, with smoke billowing from the wreckage and people aboard smaller vessels looking on.
The total number of passengers on board the doomed vessel was not known but Lokumu said it was in the 鈥榟undreds鈥�.
Some survivors were rescued and admitted to hospital, Lokondo said. But on Friday, he added, 鈥榮everal families were still without news of their loved ones鈥�.
A vast Central African nation that covers 2.3 million square kilometres, the DRC suffers from a lack of practicable roads and planes serve only a limited number of cities and towns.
As a result, people often travel on lakes, the Congo River鈥攖he second longest in Africa after the Nile鈥攁nd its winding tributaries, where shipwrecks are frequent and the death tolls often heavy.
A chronic absence of passenger lists often complicates search operations.
In October 2023, at least 47 people died after a boat navigating the Congo sank in Equateur.
More than 20 people died in October last year when a boat capsized on Lake Kivu in eastern DRC, according to local authorities.
Another shipwreck on Lake Kivu claimed around 100 lives in 2019.