Authorities in western Democratic Republic of Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don't include all those aboard. </s> Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don't include all those aboard. </s> Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don't include all those aboard.

© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> (AP) — Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don’t include all those aboard. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don’t include all those aboard. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don't include all those aboard. </s> KINSHASA, Congo — Authorities in western Congo say at least 30 people are dead and another 200 are missing after a boat sank on a lake.

Simon Mboo Wemba, the mayor of Inongo, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that many of those aboard the boat that sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe were teachers.

The mayor says they had traveled to collect their salaries by boat because roads in the region are so poor.

It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the boat when it hit bad weather late Saturday.

But officials estimate several hundred were on board. More than 80 people survived.

Boats in the vast nation of Congo are usually overloaded with passengers and cargo, and official manifests don’t include all those aboard.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Mutima, Uganda | AFP | Twenty-two people have died and more than 60 are feared drowned after a pleasure boat sank on Lake Victoria, Ugandan police said Sunday.

The vessel carrying close to a hundred revellers sank during bad weather on Saturday in the latest deadly incident to affect passenger boats on Africa’s largest lake.

“Twenty-two bodies have been recovered and 26 people rescued,” said Asuman Mugenyi, director of operations for the Uganda police. “According to one of the survivors there were more than 90 people on board.”

The boat, on which party-goers were drinking, dancing and listening to music, sank a short distance from the shore off Mutima Beach, Mutola Island in Mukono District, close to the capital Kampala.

Mugenyi said overloading and bad weather were likely to blame.

“We expect (the number of passengers) is beyond the capacity of the boat. It was overloaded and unfortunately people were drunk,” Mugenyi said. “We suspect the mechanical condition of the boat and the weather contributed to the sinking.”

“A big storm hit,” said local government official Richard Kikongo. “It can be fine on land but bad weather on the lake.”

Kikongo said first responders were among the victims. “Fishermen on two small boats could see that the boat was sinking and went to help. People tried to jump onto the boats but they were too many and those sunk. The rescuers died too,” he said.

Nearby residents said the vessel was hired out for parties every weekend and often overloaded with revellers.

The Mutima Country Haven resort had been converted to a triage centre and morgue on Sunday morning where police were collecting the swollen bodies of victims

Lake Victoria is the site of many boat disasters. In September, hundreds died when the MV Nyerere passenger ferry sank on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria.

With a surface area of 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles), oval-shaped Lake Victoria is roughly the size of Ireland and is shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

It is not uncommon for ferries to capsize on the lake and the number of fatalities is often high due to a shortage of life jackets and the fact that many local people cannot swim.

In 1966, more than 800 people lost their lives on Lake Victoria when the MV Bukoba sank off the mainland town of Mwanza, according to the Red Cross. </s> KINSHASA (Reuters) - A boat tipped over in a river in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, drowning 49 people on board while about the same number survived the accident, a local official told a Congolese radio station.

Richard Mboyo Iluka, vice governor of remote Tshuapa province, in northern Congo, told Radio Top Congo that the whaleboat had sunk with all of its passengers late on Wednesday.

Deadly boat accidents are common in Congo, a vast, forested country which has few roads outside of major towns and is carved up by a network of rivers that drain the Congo Basin. For most people these rivers are the only means of traveling over long distances.
A boat sinking on Lake Mai-Ndombe in western Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 45 people with 200 passengers still missing. The vessel was carrying more than 400 people, the majority of whom were teachers going to collect their salaries.