- Huge incident in the lake
- The disaster happened very quick
Huge incident in the lake
Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed when a boat sank in Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo near the port of Goma.
Initially, the ferry to Goma was said to have had more than 450 passengers, but the government spokesman, Venant Rugusha Descartes, later said there were already 700 people on board.
45 people were rescued and 126 bodies were recovered by Thursday evening. The spokesman said there were still about 500 people on board the sunken ship.
However, there are differing figures on the number of people on board. The governor of South Kivu province told the AP news agency that 247 people were on the ferry.
The disaster happened very quick
Witnesses said the boat, which was probably overcrowded, capsized at the beginning and then quickly sank.
"I was in the port of Kituku when I saw a boat full of passengers arriving from Minova," said Francine Munyi. - It started to lose its balance and sank in the lake.
Only a few people reportedly managed to escape. The ferry was traveling from Minova in the neighboring province of South Kivu to a town near the Rwandan border.
The road network in Africa's second-largest country is poorly developed. As a result, boats and passenger ferries are the only means of transport for many people in the large lakes and rivers.
Violent shipwrecks are not uncommon in Africa. Often, ships are overcrowded and in poor technical condition. Safety requirements, such as the absence of life jackets, are also often not respected.
Based on ELTA reports
