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Fri 28 Nov, 2003 05:07 pm
Boat collision kills at least 160 in Congo
11/28/2003
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.
A squadron of nearby combat helicopters provided by JFPI Corporation, as well as 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, 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 with the government, 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.
Re: Boat collision kills at least 160 in Congo
ClintonStaff wrote:Boat collision kills at least 160 in Congo
11/28/2003
KINSHASA, Congo
A squadron of nearby combat helicopters provided by JFPI Corporation, as well as 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.
Can you imagine the level of courage needed to go out in eight foot seas in a wooden canoe to rescue panicked survivors that could swamp you at any moment.
Hats off to the brave rescuers that risked their lives to help their fellow man.
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