DRC boat disaster leaves many dead
Reports say at least 73 people have died after a logging boat sank in bad weather on a lake in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And while the vessel was supposedly not authorised to take passengers, illegal water transport is widely used in the vast central African country, resulting in frequent accidents from overcrowding and poor maintenance. About 270 people are said to have survived, but others are still thought to be trapped inside the sunken vessel. Authorities say there was no ship's manifest, so a final body count is likely to be impossible. The local Red Cross is recovering bodies and rounding up survivors on the 120km-long and 50km-wide lake. Read more: BBC, Reuters
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