106 missing after boat capsizes on Congo river

Published on Monday 2 May 2011 15:57

AN OVERCROWDED boat capsized yesterday in Congo, witnesses said, leaving at least 106 people missing in the latest transportation tragedy in the vast Central African country of jungles and huge rivers.

The boat carrying passengers and merchandise sank on the Kasai River, according to local resident Vickie Ndaye. The mayor of the town in south-central Congo where it happened confirmed the disaster but did not offer any further details.

Another boat capsized last year on the same river, a tributary of the Congo River, leaving as many as 200 people dead. Investigators later said there were four times as many people onboard that vessel as the passenger list claimed, and that the boat operators bribed officials to allow them to overload it.

Congo suffered back-to-back civil wars beginning in the late 1990s and today has only 600 miles of paved roads in a country the size of western Europe.

The Congo River is the only real highway in the vast country. Barges traverse the river like floating villages, crowded with up to 2,000 people, mainly traders and their goods, from bags of sorghum to barrels of palm oil.

It can take weeks to get from the river's source in the south to Kinshasa, the capital. The river is nearly 3,000 miles long and ten miles wide at some points.

Since barely anyone can afford to fly, travellers in Congo ride on boats and barges not intended for people, even if they do not know how to swim, sleeping at night next to sacks of maize and piles of timber amid the stench of fish. The boats are often in poor repair and filled beyond capacity, and the industry is not well-regulated.

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