Rise to 148 Figure of Deaths in River Wreck in DR Congo Northwest
Aerial image of the fire and the ship wreck in Ecuador province, DR Congo. Photo: X/ @channelstv
April 19, 2025 Hour: 3:51 pm
The number of people who died in the river shipwreck last Tuesday after a boat that was sailing on the Congo River burned down in the province of Ecuador, northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), rise to 148.
RELATED:
Dozens dead, homes destroyed in flooding in the DR Congo capital
“It is a still provisional balance sheet that we have on the shipwreck occurred last 15 April (…). At this time, we are talking about 148 dead, 100 missing and 150 survivors,” said Olive Lomo, the president of civil society in Mbandaka, the town where the accident occurred.
According to Lomo, the first evidence suggests that the fire on the wooden boat was caused by poor filling of the fuel cans.
For his part, the head of the River Commission of the province of Ecuador, Competent Mboyo, explained to the Spanish news agency EFE that the ship did not have a passenger list, so it is difficult to know the exact number of people traveling at the time of the accident.
Mboyo reported the finding of 11 additional corpses, raising the number of shipwreck victims. The bodies are being recovered and taken to Wangata General Hospital in Mbandaka for identification and funeral arrangements.
Boating accidents are frequent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to the extensive use of rivers and lakes as the main means of transport, against a background of poor infrastructure and dense forests. These boats, often in poor condition, are often overloaded and lack adequate signage.
Last week, another shipwreck at the same location near Mbandaka killed 72 people, including students visiting their families for Easter.