At least 50 dead in DR.Congo boat collision

At least 50 people drowned and some 35 are reported missing after a boat accident on a river in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Equateur province government said Friday. The vessel, which was wrecked late Tuesday, was carrying at least 200 passengers and "up to yesterday (Thursday) we counted 115 survivors and 50 bodies fished from the water with difficulty," the government spokeswoman told AFP. "The others are certainly lost or were dragged down by the water." The large motorised barge, which was also carrying goods, collided during the night with another boat, which was empty, on the Tshuapa river, 115 kilometres (70 miles) east of the provincial capital Mbandaka, spokeswoman Rebecca Ebale Nguma said. "The boat's manifesto indicated that 200 people were on board, but some of the survivors say there were about 350 people," Nguma added. The doomed vessel had left Mbandaka for a market near the town of Boende, almost 300 kilometres (180 miles) from the provincial capital. The shipwreck took place six kilometres (four miles) from the town of Ingende. Nguma was unable to say precisely when the boat left Mbandaka, but she reckoned that the journey to Boende takes about a day. "Often they leave at night because the traders want to avoid paying taxes and they don't want to be troubled" by the services running the ports, the spokeswoman added. Overloading boats is a common practice in the DR Congo, and is also one of the main causes of the many shipwrecks in the vast central African country, which is studded with lakes and rivers. The mighty Congo river itself is one of the main transport routes. Accidents are also caused by the bad or absent signposting of waterways, the inexperience of pilots and the lack of lights on boats. Many vessels carry no lifebelts or lifejackets. After a spate of accidents on waterways at the end of April and early in May, transport minister Marie-Laure Kawanda was sacked from her post.