According to a local police officer, at least 18 people have perished in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when a riverboat carrying more than 300 passengers broke in two.
According to Martin Nakweti, acting police head in Oshwe territory of Mai-Ndombe province, where the event took place, the majority of passengers on the boat were local politicians. While officials awaited additional information to help them determine the causes of the boat’s failure, police and divers scoured the Lukenie River for the missing passengers.
Residents of Congo’s riverside communities use wooden ferries called “balanieres” to get from their homes to their workplaces in areas where there are often no roads.
Shipwrecks are also common in remote parts of the country, notably in Mai-Ndombe, a province full of lakes and rivers located 400 km east of the capital Kinshasa.
According to the local assembly, David Bisaka, a local official, drowned in April after his boat sank on the Mfimi River in the same province.
According to Bovic Ngampenga, president of a civil society organization in Oshwe, the ferry that sank on Tuesday was overloaded, in poor condition, and “should no longer be in service”.
