A boat in the Congo River sinks, killing at least 22

An official in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo told Reuters on Wednesday that at least 22 people died when the upper deck of a river boat that was too crowded fell.

In Congo, where old wooden boats are the main way to get from one town to another and are often loaded way beyond their limits, boat accidents happen all the time.

A local officer said that the boat sank on Tuesday in the western part of Mai-Ndombe province, with up to 100 people on board. There were 15 women, 5 men, and 2 children among the deceased.

“There will still be shipwrecks until we get safer metal boats.” Lebon Nkoso Kevani, the governor of the province, told Reuters, “There are thousands of these wooden ones moving through the water of Mai-Ndombe.”

He also said that a group of provincial officials had been sent to the area to look into what happened and that many of the passengers were thought to have gotten to land safely after the accident.

At least 78 people killed in October when a boat with 278 people on board capsized in Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sen. Anicet Babanga of Mai-Ndombe province told Reuters on Wednesday that about 30 people were known to have survived the latest crash and that a search was going on to find out what happened to the other passengers.