In June, 80 passengers lost their lives when an overloaded boat sank near the capital, Kinshasa. In January, 22 people died in a similar incident on Lake Maï-Ndombe, and in April 2023, six were killed and 64 others went missing following a boat accident on Lake Kivu.

At least 78 people drowned when a boat carrying 278 passengers capsized in Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, a provincial governor said.

A frantic search and rescue operation was underway hours later as many remained unaccounted for from the vessel, believed to have had 278 people on board.

At least 20 bodies have been recovered from Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after a ferry capsized just a few hundred metres from its destination. The boat was travelling from the town of Minova in South Kivu and sank as it was arriving on Goma's shore on Thursday morning.

One witness told the Associated Press that she saw the boat starting to lose its balance before sinking into the lake. She said some people threw themselves into the water.

By Sista Mukherjee A video showing an overcrowded streamer boat capsizing on a lake in Goma, eastern Congo is being falsely shared on social media posts as an incident that happened in Goa. BOOM found the tragic incident seen in the viral video happened in eastern Congo where a boat carrying 278 people capsized on Lake Kivu on October 3,

The governor of the South Kivu province said the death toll was provisional and the number of fatalities could rise further. He said there were 278 people on board, according to local authorities.