by Admin
Oct 5, 2024
Tragedy struck in the Democratic Republic of Congo when a boat carrying 278 passengers capsized in Lake Kivu in the eastern part of the country.
The boat was said to be traveling from the town of Minova in Southern Kivu and sank off 100 meters from the shores of Goma at the port of Kituku.
Confirming the incident Governor Jean Jacques Purisi said “It’ll take at least three days to get the exact numbers, because not all the bodies have been found yet,”. He said ten people who were rescued have been transported to a local hospital in the city of Goma.
The governor further explained that the boat had a maximum capacity of 130 people but doesn’t not understand how it managed to carry a total number of 278 passengers and he is awaiting the final investigation by the local police and maritime authorities.
Local authorities said that the rescue efforts continued and the death toll remained unknown for the moment.
Congolese officials have often warned several times against overloading and vowed to punish those violating safety measures for water transportation.
The law has not been enforced in remote areas where most passengers come from, so many people are unable to afford public transport for the few available roads in conflict driven regions of the country.
Since the beginning of the conflict between the Congolese Armed Forces and the M23 rebels has made the road transit between the cities of Goma and Minova unsafe and forcing the closure of the roads to trucks transporting food, many local traders have resorted to transport on Lake Kivu which most locals considered safer than road traffic, which is threatened by insecurity.
Prodesq gathered that in June, an overloaded boat sank near Kinshasa the capital of the country and 80 passengers lost their lives. While in January, 22 people died on Lake Maî-Ndombe and in April 2023, six people also died and 64 went missing on Lake Kivu.