Forty-three people drowned last week and 10 more were missing after an overloaded boat sank in Lake Tanganyika in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a United Nations spokesperson said on Friday.
The boat was travelling between the towns of Tembwe and Kalemie on the lake, which forms the country’s border with Tanzania and Burundi, said Hamadoun Toure, spokesperson for the UN mission in the DRC.
Such accidents are common in Africa, where boats are often in poor condition and overcrowded and where emergency services lack the equipment needed to launch quick and effective rescue operations.
In January, about 200 people were missing after a boat caught fire and sank on the Congo river in the west of the DRC.
That incident came only two months after an overcrowded ferry capsized during a storm on Lake Maindombe in the DRC, killing at least 112 of its passengers. — Sapa-AFP