A minister said that 47 bodies have been found in the Congo River after a boat accident over the weekend. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing.
The boat accident happened because there were too many people on the boat and it was sailing during the nighttime, which is against the rules. Marc Ekila, the transport minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said this.
He talked for the first time during a TV press conference on Monday night, two days after the accident where a boat overturned.
The incident happened when the vehicle had just left the city of Mbandaka and was heading west into the rain-forest region of the DR Congo.
Mr Ekila said they are looking into the incident, and the people responsible for the boat capsizing will be held responsible.
Right now, the person who owns the boat and the captain are thought to be missing. The owner was not on the boat when it tipped over.
The list of people who were on the plane was not found, so we can’t know yet how many were on the plane and how many are still missing.
The minister said that there have been 88 accidents on DR Congo’s waters just this year.
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47 bodies found following Congo River catastrophe
