106 missing in Congo boat accident

May 03, 2011|Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo — An overcrowded boat capsized yesterday in Congo, witnesses said, leaving at least 106 people missing in the latest transportation disaster in this vast Central African country of jungles and huge rivers.

The boat carrying passengers and merchandise sank on the Kasai River in south-central Congo, according to a nearby resident and the local mayor.

Another boat capsized last year on the tributary of the Congo River, leaving as many as 200 people dead. Investigators later said there were four times as many people aboard as the passenger list claimed, and the boat’s operators had bribed officials to let them overload it.

The Congo River, nearly 3,000 miles long and about 10 miles wide at some points, is the only real highway in the vast country, which has 600 miles of paved roads in an area the size of Western Europe. Barges traverse the river like floating villages, holding up to 2,000 people and goods from bags of sorghum to barrels of palm oil.

Authorities said at least 72 people were missing after a boat capsized on a lake in eastern Congo a week ago.

ASSOCIATED PRESS