The incident took place in Bangui (representative)
Bangui:
An overloaded boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s capital Bangui, killing at least 58 people traveling to attend a funeral, the head of the civil protection agency said on Saturday.
Thomas Djimasse told Guira radio station: “We managed to recover 58 bodies. We don’t know the total number of people under the water.”
The boat was carrying more than 300 people, some standing and others perched on wooden structures, when it capsized on the Mpoko River on Friday, witnesses and videos on social media showed.
The boat, which was en route to attend the funeral of a village chief, capsized shortly after setting off and rescuers arrived 40 minutes after the disaster.
Maurice Kapenya, who followed the ship in a canoe because there was no room on board, said he collected the bodies of some of the victims, including his own sister, with the help of fishermen and residents.
On Saturday, some families searched for relatives still missing by the river.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
