A boat carrying more than 200 mourners to a funeral sank on Lake Tumba in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 40 people, with many others still missing, officials confirmed on Friday.
The incident occurred on Wednesday in Equateur province and involved three large canoes tied together, according to the provincial interior minister, Crispin Mputu Molia.
“We’ve recovered 40 bodies so far and rescued dozens of survivors. However, many remain unaccounted for,” Mputu told AFP.
Resident Dieu-Merci Akula, however, reported a higher toll, stating that 54 bodies had been found. “We had 52 bodies yesterday, and two more were discovered this morning,” he said.
The boat was transporting the body of a deceased woman and more than 200 people to the village of Ikoko-Bonginda for a funeral ceremony.
Mputu said eyewitnesses described how the boat encountered strong waves that overwhelmed the operators. “The pilots couldn’t control the vessel,” he said, adding that an investigation had been launched to determine the exact cause.
No passenger manifest was available, complicating efforts to establish the total number aboard. “It is difficult to confirm whether the boat was overloaded,” Mputu said.
However, a civil society group in Equateur province alleged that the boat was significantly overcrowded. In a statement, the group said that some passengers had initially been turned away, but emotional pressure from grieving relatives led to more people boarding.
It called for a thorough investigation into the incident and the broader failures of the country’s transport system, highlighting “overloading, a lack of safety checks, notorious carelessness, and regulatory lapses.”
Deadly accidents on rivers and lakes are tragically common in the DRC, where water transport remains essential due to the limited road infrastructure. The frequent lack of passenger lists hampers rescue efforts and makes accurate casualty figures hard to determine.
In April, dozens died in a fire aboard a passenger vessel on the Congo River, also in Equateur. In 2021, over 100 people lost their lives in a similar tragedy in neighbouring Mongala province.
President Félix Tshisekedi introduced measures in 2019 aimed at improving safety, such as making life jackets compulsory, but enforcement has been minimal.
