A boat collision on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 30 people, while dozens more have been reported missing.
Officials said two vessels crashed into each other while travelling on the Congo River on Sunday evening, near the Ngombe-Lukolela area of Equateur province in the country's northwest. The information was released on Monday.
According to officials, 30 people drowned in the incident. Search and rescue efforts have been deployed to find those missing.
Crispin Mputu, Equateur province's interior minister, told the state news agency Agence Congolaise Presse that a metal boat named "Dieu se cache", which had set out from Kinshasa, the country's capital, collided with a wooden vessel named "HB Super Victoire" that had departed from Businga.
"Almost all the passengers on the boat were trapped underwater, and the boat itself sank," he added.
Mputu said the drowned victims had been buried.
Safety standards
The cause of the collision remains unclear. Mputu noted that many accidents have occurred when vessels travel at night.
A security official who witnessed the incident told the AP news agency that the boat from Kinshasa had been overloaded with cargo.
Maritime tragedies are common in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where night travel and overloaded vessels are often blamed. Weak safety standards and poor infrastructure in remote areas also contribute to waterway accidents, which have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
In July, a wooden boat carrying students returning from state exams capsized, killing at least 20 people in the country's Kasai province.
