Scores die in boat accident, local officials report

AFP - Two children were plucked from the waters around a capsized boat in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the only survivors of a tragedy feared to have killed around 140 people, officials said Thursday.
   
The boat overturned Wednesday on the Kasai river, a tributary of the Congo river, in the west of the vast central African country country.
   
"I can confirm the accident. We're currently in a crisis meeting," said a source in the Bandundu province governor's office who asked not to be named. The source said there were 140 dead.
   
A local source reached by AFP said that only two children survived the tragedy.
   
The boat was carrying an unspecified number of passengers and goods from Mushie, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Bandundu, the province's chief town.
   
Neither the UN mission for the stabilisation of the DR Congo (MONUSCO) nor the international Red Cross had any further details of the shipwreck.
   
River transport is widely used throughout DR Congo, where the numerous waterways include the 4,700 kilometres (2,915 miles) long Congo river.
   
Scores of people are killed each year in river disasters usually involving overcrowded boats.
   
In November last year, at least 73 people died when two linked barges sank on Mai-Ndombe lake in Bandundu province. In September 2009, more than 250 people died in three boat accidents on Congolese waterways.
   
In one of the worst incidents of recent years, some 200 people were reported missing after a fire broke out on a ferry on the Congo river in the northern Equateur province in 2004. The boat sank with almost 500 people on board.
   
Apart from overcrowding, other causes of accidents are the bad signposting of navigable channels, the absence of signal lights on boats and inexperienced pilots. Most vessels fail to meet basic safety requirements, including carrying life jackets and lifebelts.