News About Congo

Congo Boat Sinking 'Kills 140'

Transportation accidents in Congo are using catastrophic due to overcrowding and disregarding safety measures.

This applies to cars to cars, trucks, trains, and boats. 

BBC News - DR Congo boat sinking 'kills 140'.

Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.

The accident happened on the Kasai river - a tributary of the Congo River - in the western province of Bandundu.

Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC the boat had been overloaded and 80 people had been confirmed dead.

After decades of conflict, DR Congo has few roads or rail links and many people travel on often overloaded vessels.

Sixty Children Were Killed

Many of the victim of the tanker explosion in Congo last were innocent children watching a soccer match at a theater.

Fuel distribution in Congo is hazardous at best.  In central Congo, independent dealers are every where.  However, most of fuel being distributed is diesel.  And fuel is most distributed in 55-gallon drums.  

Congo risks more killer fuel accident: expert | Top News | Reuters.

The Democratic Republic of Congo risks another fuel explosion like that which killed some 230 people at the weekend unless it boosts safety in the chaotic east and south of the country, a sector expert said on Monday.

More than 60 children, many of them watching football in makeshift cinema halls, were among those killed in the blast after an oil tanker toppled, and leaking petrol later ignited with the force equivalent to 343 kg (756 lb) of dynamite.

"It can easily happen again unless the government tightens safety measures," Alain Ilunga, deputy CEO of Congo's fuel distribution company SEP Congo, a joint venture with Total, told Reuters on Monday.