Congo: 50 dead as boat capsizes on lake

At least 50 people have died after a boat carrying many passengers capsized on Lake Kivu in eastern Congo, reports said.

According to witnesses “Rescue services recover at least 50 bodies from the water, 10 people survived and were taken to the local hospital.”

The boat, overloaded with passengers, sank while trying to dock just meters away from the port of Kituku, the witnesses said. It was going from Minova in South Kivu province to Goma, in North Kivu province.

“This boat was carrying about a hundred people when it had the capacity for about thirty passengers,” the governor of the province of South Kivu Jean-Jacques Purusi said.

The victims families and Goma residents gathered at the port of Kituku, accusing authorities of negligence in the face of growing insecurity in the region.