At
least 140 passengers died when an overcrowded ferry hit a sandbank and capsized
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), a local official said. The
accident happened Wednesday on the Kasai River, a stretch of the Congo River in
the DR Congo's western Bandundu province.
The
government confirmed the accident, saying it may have been caused by low water
levels on the river due to the dry season.
The
ferry's passenger list showed that 180 people were on board, but the real
figure may outnumber this as many people secretly boarded the boat, DR Congo's
Communications Minister Lambert Mende said.
A
local official told Xinhua that the ferry carried more than 250 passengers,
mostly businessmen, farmers and students.
According
to Xavier Nsingi, navy commander of the National Transport Office, there could
be more than 200 deaths as a result of the accident.
Neither
the UN Mission for the Stabilization of the DR Congo nor the International Red
Cross has any details of the shipwreck.
Decades
of conflict have left the nation's infrastructure in tatters. Ferry accidents
are frequent and often blamed on overloading.
In
May, more than 100 people also died in a ferry accident on the Congo River near
Kindu in Maniema Province.
Jos, the Plateau state capital, boiled yet again recently leaving in the wake of it hundreds of lives lost and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed. A good number of those who survived crisis have been economically displaced and may have to start life all over again.
A number of people would have kept their dead parents in the mortuary for months, thereby delaying the natural process of decomposition, all for fear of kidnap in the southeast today.
Deregulation, the magic wand, we've been told is the only solution to our petroleum needs. Nigerians, the federal government insists, must embrace deregulation if they need petroleum products or face the fate of returning to the medieval era of using firewood and stones or at best acquire plenty of donkeys from northern Nigeria, if they must move around.
Hey Ladies, In the last publication we
talked about being independent as a lady and highlighted so many points, but we
want to continue exploring the independent state of mind placing emphasis on
when the quest for independence could turn into arrogance in homes or amidst
friends.
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