More than 140 killed, many people set fire to Congo after fuel -carrying boat

Officials said on Friday that at least 143 people died and went missing from dozens and dozens of dozens, as the fuel -carrying boat caught fire and the Democratic Republic of Congo declined.

According to Josephine-Pacific Lokumu, the head of a delegation of national duties from the region, there was a crowd of hundreds of passengers on a wooden boat on the Congo river at North Western DRC on Tuesday.

At the confluence of the disaster, Raki and Vishal Congo River, the capital of Equatur province, Mobandka – was the deepest in the world.

Lokumu told AFP, “A first group of 131 dead bodies was found on Wednesday, with out of 12 and 12 on Thursday and 12.”

Joseph Lokondo, a leader of a local citizen society, who said he helped to bury the bodies, “Ginnasty of provisional death on 145: Some were burnt, others drowned”.

Lokumu said the explosion was caused by a fuel explosion that was ignited by cooking fire on a ship.

“A woman burnt embers for cooking. Fuel, which was not far away, exploded, many children and women died”, he said.

The video on social media shows that with a long boat away from the shore, with the smoke bill and small ships watching the debris.

Missing love

The total number of passengers on the doom vessel was not known, but Lokumu said it was in “hundreds”.

Some of the remaining people were rescued and hospitalized, Lokondo said.

But on Friday, he said, “Many families were still without news of their loved ones”.

A vast Central African nation that covers 2.3 million square kilometers (900,000 sq mi), DRC suffers from deficiency of practical roads and aircraft, only serves a limited number of cities and towns.

As a result people often travel on lakes, the Congo River – the second longest in Africa after the River – Neel River – and its curved tributaries, where shipwreaks often occur and death is often heavy.

The chronic absence of passenger lists often complicates search operations.

In October 2023, at least 47 people died after a boat, which was sinking in the Congo by a boat.

More than 20 people died in October last year, when according to local authorities, a boat caused a boat on Kivu Lake at Eastern DRC.

Another ship claimed about 100 lives in 2019 on Kivu Lake.

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