At least 22 people have died after two boats collided on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with a passenger vessel sinking and many people still believed to be missing.
The accident happened in the early hours of Saturday, 3 October, near the town of Ngombe in the Lukolela area of Western Equateur Province. Provincial Interior Minister Crispin Mputu confirmed the incident and said rescue efforts were continuing to locate passengers who could still be unaccounted for.
According to Reuters, the passenger boat was carrying 163 people when it collided head-on with a commercial vessel travelling between the capital Kinshasa and Mbandaka. The passenger vessel had been travelling from Mongala Province towards Kinshasa when the collision occurred.
The impact caused the passenger boat to sink in the river. Officials said the vessel was lying at a depth of around 12 metres, making the recovery operation particularly difficult. Rescue teams were working in the area to search for survivors and recover those who may have been trapped inside or swept away by the current.
So far, 22 bodies have been recovered from the river and buried, while 59 people have been rescued alive. However, the number of people still missing remains unclear. The discrepancy between the number of passengers reported to have been on board and the number of survivors and recovered bodies has raised concerns that the eventual death toll could be higher.
Mputu said some victims may have been recovered by relatives and buried elsewhere without being included in the official tally. Such circumstances can make it difficult for authorities to establish an immediate and accurate record of casualties, particularly after a major river accident involving a large number of passengers.
The search operation was still continuing on Monday evening, 5 October. Authorities were concentrating their efforts around the location where the passenger boat sank, while information from survivors and relatives was being gathered to help establish how many people remain unaccounted for.
The Congo River is an important transport route in the DRC, particularly for communities that have limited access to roads. Passenger and commercial boats are widely used to move people and goods between riverine settlements and major urban centres. That dependence makes the safety of river transport a significant concern, especially when large numbers of passengers are travelling.
The immediate cause of the collision has not yet been established. Authorities have not provided a detailed explanation of how the two vessels came to collide head-on. Further information is expected as the rescue operation progresses and officials assess the circumstances surrounding the accident.
The submerged vessel itself could provide important evidence for investigators, but recovering it from a depth of approximately 12 metres will present additional challenges. Until the search and identification process is completed, both the number of missing passengers and the final death toll may change.
For families whose relatives remain unaccounted for, the continuing rescue operation is a race against time. Officials are expected to determine the full scale of the tragedy once the search is completed and the identities of those rescued, missing and killed have been verified.
