A ferry loaded with people returning home for Christmas capsized on the Busira River in northeastern Congo, killing 38 people and leaving more than 100 others missing, officials and eyewitnesses said Saturday. Twenty people have been rescued so far.
The sinking of the ferry on Friday came less than four days after another boat capsized in the northeastern country, killing 25 people.
The ferry was sailing as part of a convoy of other ships and the passengers were mostly merchants returning home for Christmas, said Joseph Joseph Kangolingoli, mayor of Ingende, the last town on the river before the accident site.
According to Ingende resident Ndolo Kaddy, there were “over 400 people on the ferry as it was calling at two ports, Ingende and Loolo, on the way to Boende, so there is reason to believe that more were killed.”
Congolese officials have often warned against overloading boats and said they would punish those violating river safety measures. However, in remote areas, many people cannot afford public transport on the few available roads.
At least 78 people drowned in October when an overloaded boat sank in the east of the country, and 80 people died in a similar accident near Kinshasa, the capital, in June.
The latest accident sparked anger at the government for failing to equip the convoy with flotation devices.
Nesty Bonina, a member of the local government and a prominent figure in Mbandaka, the capital of Équateur province where the ferry sank, condemned the authorities for mishandling the recent sinkings.
“How can a ship sail at night under the watchful eye of river service agents? And now we record the death of over a hundred people,” Bonina said.
Capsizing of overloaded boats is becoming more common in the Central African country as more people for safety reasons abandon the few available roads in favor of wooden vessels sagging under the weight of passengers and their goods.
The roads are frequently the site of deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels, which sometimes block major access routes.