Congo Boat Crash - 160+ Dead

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KINSHASA, Congo - Two boats overloaded with fishermen and 
traders collided on a stormy lake off the Congo River, killing 
at least 160 people and leaving more than 100 others missing.

Reports of causalities emerged Thursday from one of the 
deadliest ferry disasters ever in Africa, where inadequate roads 
make crowded, dilapidated riverboats a prime means of 
transportation.

Villagers in wooden canoes rescued many of what authorities said 
were 222 survivors from the accident, which happened late 
Tuesday, saving them from waves as high as eight feet.

"When the boat split, everyone fell in the water, searching for 
something to hold onto," passenger Bienvenue Mwanku, a 23-year-
old student, told The Associated Press by telephone.

"Many pushed themselves up onto empty tin barrels," Mwanku said. 
"I saved my life only by clutching a barrel with some other 
people."

News of the collision reached the capital, Kinshasa, 275 miles 
to the south, late Wednesday. Congo's government blamed a 
violent storm for the collision on Mai-Ndombe lake, which drains 
into the Congo River.

One of the boats was called "Dieu Merci," or "Thanks to God," 
nearby villagers said.

Both vessels were built to hold about 100 people each, aid 
workers said. But Congo Humanitarian Affairs Minister Catherine 
Nzuzi said the boats were carrying a total of 450 to 500 people. 
Mwanku, the passenger, described people crowded onto the roof of 
the boat she was on.

Merchants and fishermen were ferrying fish and manioc, a staple 
of central Africa. The boats were nearing the river when "they 
were surprised by a great storm," said Didier Bontange, an aid 
worker with Medecins sans Frontieres, of Doctors Without Borders 
(news - web sites), at the nearest town, Inongo.

The impact threw hundreds of passengers and crew members into 
the water, and strong winds and high waves kept many from 
swimming to shore, 300 yards away.

After a first survivor climbed from the water, carrying a dead 
baby, villagers rushed canoes into the churning lake to search 
for passengers.

They "did everything they could with what they had," Bontange 
said, adding that a state-owned rescue boat arrived only hours 
later.

"People here are very angry, they're expressing their 
indignation at always being forgotten by the authorities."

Health workers, aided by residents, were burying the dead two to 
four to a grave. "All the town is in mourning," said Michel 
Eliba, a boat worker in Inongo.

Congo's government reopened the Congo River to commercial 
traffic in April after closing it during the country's nearly 
five-year war, fearing rebels could use it to move on Kinshasa.

A nation the size of Western Europe, Congo has only a few 
hundred miles of paved roads, making the Congo River and its 
tributaries lifelines of the vast country's commerce.

In March, another overloaded ferry sank in Lake Tanganyika in 
Congo's far east, killing 111. Forty-one others survived.

Africa's worst ferry accident occurred on Sept. 26, 2002, when 
Senegal's state-run ferry — carrying nearly four times its 
intended capacity — overturned in a gale in the Atlantic Ocean.

Some 1,863 died when the MS Joola capsized, a more deadly 
accident than the Titanic and the world's second-worst maritime 
disaster ever. Sixty people survived.