A boat carrying scores of passengers has capsised on Lake Kivu in eastern Congo on Thursday, killing at least 50 people, Associated Press reports.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were on board or how many perished in the accident, but witnesses said they saw rescue services recover at least 50 bodies from the water.
Witnesses also said 10 people survived the incident and were taken to the local hospital.
The boat which was overloaded with passengers, sank while trying to dock just meters (yards) away from the port of Kituku, according to witnesses.
The accident occurred when the boat was travelling from Minova in South Kivu province to Goma, in North Kivu province.
Local authorities said that the rescue efforts continued and the death toll remained unknown at the moment.
“This boat was carrying about a hundred people when it had the capacity for about thirty passengers,” the governor of the province of South Kivu Jean-Jacques Purusi told a local radio station following the accident.
It was the latest deadly boat accident in the central African country, where overcrowding on vessels is often to blame.
Maritime regulations also are often not followed.
“Many died, and few were saved,” she added. “I couldn’t help them because I don’t know how to swim.”
The victims’ families and Goma residents gathered at the port of Kituku, accusing authorities of negligence in the face of growing insecurity in the region.
AP reported that since the fighting between the armed forces and the M23 rebels made the road between the cities of Goma and Minova impassable, forcing the closure of the passage to trucks transporting food, many traders have resorted to maritime transport on Lake Kivu as an alternative considered safer than road traffic, which is threatened by insecurity.
However, according to Elia Asumani, a shipping agent who works on this line, the situation has become dangerous, “We are afraid,” he told the AP. “This shipwreck was predictable.”
One of the affected families, a 27-year-old Bienfait Sematumba said he lost four family members.
“They are all dead. I am alone now,” he said, sobbing. “If the authorities had ended the war, this shipwreck would never have happened.”
The survivors, about 10 of them, were taken to Kyeshero Hospital for treatment. One of them, Neema Chimanga, said she was still in shock.
“We saw the boat start to fill with water halfway,” she recounted to the AP. “The door of the boat opened, and we tried to close it. But the water was already coming in, and the boat tilted.”
“I threw myself into the water and started swimming,” adding. “I don’t know how I got out of the water.”
