Rescuers have found the bodies of nine people who perished after an overloaded passenger boat capsized and sank in the Lukeni River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's western province of Maï-Ndombe this past weekend.
The discovery of the nine additional victims raises the incident's confirmed death toll to 29. However, local authorities also reported that at least 128 survivors have so far been identified among the more than 300 people who were on the vessel when it sailed on the unauthorised nighttime voyage.
Rescuers are continuing to scour the waters of the Lukeni for any sign of the boat's missing occupants, whose exact number remains unknown.
Officials said that the recovered deceased victims included 15 women and a nine-month-old infant.
Deadly maritime accidents in the DRC are often caused by operators' failure to comply with safety regulations. An incident that killed at least 52 in Equateur province in October 2023 and another mishap that left 40 dead in late July this year have been attributed to overloading.