Barge accidents leave at least 73 dead

At least 73 people died when two barges loaded with logs sank on a lake in western Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday.

AFP - Two barges loaded with logs sank in a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 73 people, the International Committee of the Red Cross and a radio station said Saturday.
   
"Up to Friday night, we had counted 73 dead and 276 who escaped," its country director Dominique Lutula told AFP. "There are probably more bodies trapped inside the barges that went down."
   
The barges -- which Lutula said were linked to each other -- sank Wednesday night in Mai-Ndombe lake, in western Bandundu province, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Kinshasa.
   
"There are 200 Red Cross rescue workers on the shore of the lake -- which is very large -- along with other people, busy recovering bodies, some of which have already been buried," Lutula said.
   
"We are also in the process of rounding up survivors."
   
Citing local authorities, UN-backed Radio Okapi said the barges went down amid strong winds at around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT). Owned by a timber company, the barges were carrying logs and the passengers were along for the ride.
   
Known as Lake Leopold until the 1970s, Lake Mai-Ndombe -- in a region thick with tropical forest -- is 120 kilometres long, and as much as 50 kilometres wide at one point.
   
River transport is widely used in the DR Congo, which has several major waterways including the Congo river, which is 4,700 kilometres (2,915 miles) long.
   
However, boats frequently capsize on lakes and rivers, partly because of overloading, when cargo manifests are sometimes fraudulently filled in, and partly because of the bad signposting of navigable waterways.
   
Most boats lack navigational safeguards including signal lamps and lifejackets.
   
"There's no miracle solution, unless it's respect for the security norms," Simon Vivila, technical administrator at the DR Congo maritime waterways authority, told AFP in October.
   
On September 13, in southeastern Katanga province, a ferry boat with more than 200 passengers capsized in the middle of the night in a section of the Congo river infested with crocodiles.
   
Ninety people perished, 25 were declared missing and almost 100 survived. The vessel theoretically had a maximum passenger capacity of 50.
   
Fifteen days later, another boat sank at the junction of the Sumbuji and Kasai rivers, in Kasai Occidental province, drowning 12 people and leaving about 100 unaccounted for.
   
That boat, carrying at least 150 people plus farm produce, apparently sank because it was overloaded and ran into a strong current, a local official said. Most of the 40-odd survivors were on its roof, enabling them to flee to safety.
   
On September 29, about 50 people drowned when an open boat loaded with bags of manioc, maize and groundnuts capsized with about 100 people on board at the junction of the Inzia and Kwilu rivers in Bandundu province.

Date created : 2009-11-28