A tragic boat accident in northwestern Congo has claimed the lives of at least 30 people, including students, after a wooden vessel sank in Lake Tumba during severe weather on Wednesday night. The incident occurred in the Bikoro territory of Equateur province and has left many others missing as desperate search efforts continue.
Authorities and residents confirmed that the boat was transporting passengers and market-bound goods when it capsized, reportedly due to turbulent waters stirred by relentless rainfall.
Territorial administrator Justin Mputu told local media, “Thirty bodies had been recovered, and more people are missing.”
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Among the victims were relatives of José Ipalaka, a retired senior government official who lives in the area. Speaking to The Associated Press, he shared the personal toll of the tragedy: “Three of my relatives were among the 30 so far confirmed dead,” he said, adding that other family members were involved in the ongoing search for those unaccounted for.
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The ill-fated journey began as a routine trip to the market in the village of Ikoko Bongonda, but quickly turned catastrophic. According to Mputu, “The capsizing was believed to have been caused by turbulent waters due to heavy recent rains.”
Footage from residents showed harrowing scenes of grief—families wailing over rows of bodies laid out on the ground. In one clip, a man could be seen carefully loading the bodies of children into a canoe, a grim testament to the scale of the disaster.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rivers and lakes are often the only viable means of transportation, especially in isolated regions with limited infrastructure. But this reliance comes at a deadly cost. Poor boat maintenance, lack of regulation, and frequent overloading, combined with unpredictable weather, have made such accidents tragically routine.
Despite repeated promises by Congolese authorities to improve water travel safety, little has changed. In April, at least 50 people died in a separate boating tragedy after a vessel caught fire and capsized in the country’s northwest. Just months earlier, more than 80 people perished when a boat sank near Kinshasa. In many of these cases, those missing are never found.
Experts warn that unless decisive action is taken, Congo’s waterways will continue to be both lifelines and death traps for its population of over 100 million.
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