At least 58 people died and others were missing on Friday when an overloaded barge sank in the Mpoko River in Bangui, capital of Central African Republic, while en route to a funeral, authorities said.
"We were able to recover 58 dead bodies. We do not know the total number of people who are underwater," the director general of Civil Protection, Thomas Djimasse, told Radio Güira, whose teams arrived at the scene 40 minutes after the tragedy.
After the government reported on Friday, a "provisional balance of at least 30 people dead, missing and several injured", it did not give more details on Saturday after learning of the increase in victims. "The government sends its deepest condolences to the bereaved families," government spokesman Maxime Balalou continued in a speech recorded on Friday and broadcast on public radio on Saturday. He also announced the opening of an investigation "to determine the causes of this tragedy as well as responsibilities" and the establishment of an "exceptional support system for the families of the victims", without further details.
The wooden boat, called a whaleboat, was carrying more than 300 people, well beyond its capacity, and was heading to Makolo, a town 45 kilometers from Bangui, to attend the funeral of a village chief, witnesses said. . In images spread on social networks, you can see how the boat breaks in half just a few seconds after leaving the dock and dozens of people jump into the water.
This is confirmed by Maurice Kapenya, a witness who was behind the boat "in a small canoe", due to lack of space on board and removed the first victims, including his own sister, with the help of fishermen and local residents, before for help to arrive. Some injured were evacuated in motorcycle taxis, like Francis Maka, who told France Presse that he had "taken more than ten people to the community hospital."
Families were still near the river on Saturday, paying for the services of canoeists to search for their still-missing loved ones, as emergency services were no longer on site, a France Presse journalist reported.
Several opposition parties, such as the Central African People's Liberation Movement, also expressed their "solidarity with the families" and the Republican Unity Party (UNIR), called for "national mourning."
The Central African Republic is the second least developed country in the world, the UN said last year, and the scene since 2013 of a deadly civil war whose intensity has decreased since 2018.
At the end of 2020, the most powerful of the numerous armed groups that then divided up two-thirds of the territory allied within the PCC and launched an offensive in Bangui to try to overthrow the head of state, Faustin Archange Touadéra, who had requested Moscow to the rescue of his destitute army.
