By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-06 03:50:59 | Updated at 2026-10-07 05:44:22
1 day ago
At least 30 people have died after two boats collided in the Congo, local officials announced.
Dozens are still missing after the motorised wooden boots collided on Sunday evening near the Ngombe-Lukolela area in Equateur province, according to the provincial interior minister, Crispin Mputu.
But it remains unclear what the cause of the crash war.
Mr Mputu said navigating the river at night had historically killed many people.
The bodies of the 30 people who died on Sunday have already been buried, the minister added.
One was a commercial vessel was headed to the capital, Kinshasa, from Ubangi.
The other was a passenger riverboat en route from Kinshasa to Lukolela, near where the vessels collided, Mr Mputu added.
A security source told Reuters the passenger boat, carrying 163 people, sank after the collision.
River transport is the main form of travel and trade in much of western Congo
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As of last night, at least 59 survivors were rescued.
A separate security source told the Associated Press the boat "returning from Ubangi was overloaded with goods and collided with the one coming from Kinshasa".
He claimed almost all of the passengers on the ship were trapped underwater as it sank.
Search efforts for survivors continue.
The two vessels collided near this section of the Congo River
River transport is the main form of travel and trade in much of western Congo.
Accidents frequently happen because vessels are often overcrowded.
Last year, two separate deadly boat incidents killed a total of 193 people across two days.
A boat with nearly 500 passengers caught fire, killing 107 people, with a further 146 missing.
That horrific collision followed an incident where at least 86 people were killed in the same province.
State media blamed "improper loading and night navigation" for causing the fire and capsize.
And in July, a wooden vessel carrying students back from state exams in central Congo, killing at least 20.
The vessel was making its way through Kazai province when it sank while entering the merging point of the Sankuru and Kasai rivers.
