Two Congo boat capsizings kill at least 70

KINSHASA, Congo - Two boat capsizings in one weekend on Congo's vast rivers have left 70 people dead and 200 others feared dead in unrelated incidents that were both characterized by heavily loaded boats operated with few safety measures, officials said yesterday.

Early Saturday, a boat on the Rupi River in northwest Equateur Province hit a rock and capsized, provincial spokeswoman Ebale Engumba said. She said more than 70 people are believed dead among 100 estimated passengers. She said officials are investigating why the boat was traveling through the darkness without a light.

Another boat tipping in Kasai Occidental Province left 200 people feared dead after the boat loaded with passengers and fuel drums caught fire and capsized in southern Congo, a survivor said yesterday. Another survivor confirmed the account and said local fishermen refused to help drowning passengers who jumped off the crowded boat.

The incident in southern Congo would be the deadliest boat accident this year in the Central African nation, formally called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In Saturday's incident in northwest Congo, Engumba said officials think the boat's lack of lighting was responsible. "We are going to arrest people involved who are in charge of regulating the boat's movement who failed to stop that boat from traveling at night," she said.

In Sunday's incident, survivors said the boat was overloaded with people and goods. A local official said two of the boat's crew were arrested, but both refused to say how many people were aboard. The official said the passenger manifest apparently vanished in the fire.

When the fire started and people began jumping overboard, nearby fishermen ignored pleas for help, passenger Romaine Mishondo said.

"Fishermen attacked the boat and started beating passengers with paddles as they were [trying] to loot goods," she said. "I survived because I hung onto a jerrycan until another vessel passed by the scene and rescued us."