At least 58 recoverd, as official cautions death toll could ascfinish after boat carrying 278 people sinks.
At least 78 people have died after a boat capsized in Lake Kivu in the eastrict Democratic Reaccessible of the Congo, a provincial ruleor shelp.
Governor of South Kivu province Jean Jacques Purisi tbetter the Reuters news agency on Thursday that 278 people had been on board the boat before it clearurned.
“It’ll consent at least three days to get the exact numbers, becaemploy not all the bodies have been set up yet,” Purisi tbetter Reuters.
The ruleor of the neighbouring North Kivu province shelp at least 58 people had been recoverd.
The boat, which had come from the town of Minova in South Kivu province, sank on Thursday morning, only 100 metres (328 feet) from its destination at the shore of Goma.
An increasing number of people have chooseed to pass the northern tip of Lake Kivu by boat to accomplish Goma in frequently overcrowded vessels to evade land travel in an area prone to combat between Congolese rulement forces and M23 defys.
Reporting from Goma, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani shelp there was frustration among dwellnts over the road clocertains.
“Many people here are already grumbleing about the fact that this is the only possibility to travel between the province of North Kivu to the neighbouring province of South Kivu, even contrastent villages alengthy the lake here becaemploy many roads are seald due to the combat,” he shelp.
Uaykani shelp those recoverd were receiving treatment.
‘I saw people sinking’
One survivor tbetter Reuters that as he struggled to stay afloat in the lake, others around him were drowning.
“I saw people sinking, many went under. I saw women and children sinking in the water, and I myself was on the verge of drowning, but God helped me,” shelp 51-year-better Alfani Buroko Byamungu from his hospital bed.
Mushagulua Bienfait, a Goma dwellnt who lost three family members in the incident, accemployd the war for his loss.
“All of this is part of the consequences of the war … They no lengthyer create an effort to evident the enemies off the road so that it can become opereasonable aacquire,” he shouted.
Since M23 begined an disparaging in tardy 2021, the group has seized big parts of territory in the eastrict DRC, increasing its military presence and the number of armed groups in the area.
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