At least 19 people die in Congo boat accident

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GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov 29 (Reuters) – At least 19 people died when heavy winds caused a boat to capsize on Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lake Mai-Ndombe, the governor of Mai-Ndombe province said on Saturday.

The boat had left the village of Kiri for the capital Kinshasa when it capsized on Thursday night, local government and civil society sources said. 

River boats are the main form of transport in many rural parts of Congo, but vessels are often outdated and accidents are frequent.

“Yesterday we recovered nine bodies, and today ten more were pulled from the water, bringing the total to 19 dead and 82 survivors,” said provincial governor Nkoso Kevani Lebon, adding he did not know how many people might be missing. 

“The cause of the incident was a violent wind on the lake that disabled one of the boat’s two engines, causing it to capsize,” he told Reuters. 

Another government official, Freddy Bonzeke Iliki, estimated that the boat had been carrying at least 200 passengers and said the search for bodies continued. 

“It is following incidents like these that we discover that the regulations concerning tonnage and passenger capacity were not being respected,” said Iliki, a national representative for the Mushie territory in Mai-Ndombe province. 

He said he had already proposed a ban on makeshift wooden boats on Lake Mai-Ndombe, but that it had not been instituted.

Around 200 people died in two separate river boat accidents in other parts of Congo in September.

(Reporting by Fiston Mahamba; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Toby Chopra)