A train accident on Thursday night in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed 75 people and injured 125, according to a new report compiled on Sunday by a public rail company and published by the Ministry of Communications. The previous balance sheet, drawn up on Saturday, reported at least 60 dead, men, women and children, and 52 injured.
28 victims with severe injuries
After visiting the crash site in Lualaba province, Fabienne Mutomb, CEO of the National Railway Company of the Congo (SNCC), “reported official figures of 75 dead and 125 injured, including 28 with serious injuries. transferred to specialized medical centers,” the Congolese Ministry of Communications tweeted late Sunday evening.
Fabien Mutombe is expected in Kinshasa on Monday “for other practical arrangements related to managing the damage caused by this tragedy,” added the ministry, which announced a few hours earlier a trip to the SNCC boss’s seat, “with members of the investigating committee.”
Hundreds of stowaways boarded
The damaged 15-car convoy was a freight train but was carrying several hundred stowaways, SNCC infrastructure director Manyonga Ndambo, who was contacted by phone from Lubumbashi, told AFP on Saturday. The train arrived from Luena, in the neighboring province of Upper Lomami, bound for the mining town of Tenque. He added that he derailed on Thursday evening at 11:50 p.m. in the village of Buyofwe, about 200 km from Kolwezi, “in a place where there are ravines” into which 7 out of 15 wagons fell.
Manyonga Ndambo said on Sunday that the track had been cleared since early morning, but the damaged wagons still needed to be towed. The authorities do not specify the reasons for the accident, but, probably, one of the reasons is the dilapidation of the rails. Train derailments often occur in the DRC, as well as overloaded boats sinking on the country’s lakes and rivers. Often, due to a lack of passenger trains or passable roads, passengers use freight trains to travel long distances.