Boat Capsizes on Lake Tanganyika, Resulting in 41 Deaths

At least 41 people have died, and 49 others have been rescued, after a boat capsized on Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Norris Mulongoyi, the provincial transport minister for DRC’s Tanganyika province, stated that search operations were underway to locate the remaining passengers. The boat was reportedly carrying about 100 people and cargo when it capsized near the Congolese village of Mapera. The vessel was traveling from the port of Kigoma in Tanzania to the city of Kalemie in DRC when it sank on Thursday. A survivor identified as Annie Moyoni told Radio Okapi, a UN-backed Congolese broadcaster, that passengers were awakened at about 1 a.m. and found the boat tilting to one side. The cause of the capsizing is unclear, but hundreds of people have died in boat disasters in the DRC in recent years, according to the Associated Press. Vessels are often overloaded and lack life jackets. For many in the DRC, traveling by boat is the cheapest and most affordable way to get around. The country is one of the poorest in the world and lacks sufficient infrastructure for its more than 100 million people. This incident marks the second loss of a Congolese vessel on the Kigoma-Kalemie route in less than a month. On August 28, the Congolese vessel MV Pacifique caught fire and exploded at the port of Kigoma while loading fuel, resulting in six crew members being killed and a seventh reported missing, according to Radio Okapi. Additionally, at least 20 people died when a wooden boat carrying students returning from state exams sank in central DRC in July.