Almost all the passengers were ‘trapped underwater’ when the boat went down, a security officer who watched from the riverbank told the Associated Press.
The Congo River boat collision has killed at least 30 people, according to Crispin Mputu, the interior minister of Equateur province. Dozens more are missing.
Two motorised wooden boats hit each other in the dark near Ngombe-Lukolela. One was heading for Kinshasa from the Ubangi area in the north-west. The other was sailing out of the capital towards Lukolela, Mputu said.
The boat coming from the Ubangi side was overloaded with goods, the officer said. He spoke anonymously because he was not cleared to talk publicly.
A witness told Radio Okapi that ‘one of the boats sank to the bottom of the river’ while the other was seized at Ngombe. Survivors of the Congo River boat collision were pulled out with help from riverside residents and other river users, the station added.
The death toll remains disputed. Radio Okapi’s first account spoke of about 30 survivors and described its figures as unofficial. Congo’s state news agency, also quoting Mputu, reported a provisional figure of around 10 dead and 57 survivors. Mputu later told the Associated Press that 30 victims had already been buried.
Even the timing is disputed. The Associated Press said the boats collided on Sunday evening. Radio Okapi was already reporting the crash on Sunday afternoon and placed it overnight from Saturday, which makes the earlier hour more likely.
The Congo River boat collision was not the only accident that weekend. On Sunday, one of the four barges of the Global Express sank while manoeuvring at a quay in Nganda Musolo, western Kinshasa, Radio Okapi reported. Some passengers were missing, and no official toll or cause had been given that evening.
This is the latest in a run of river accidents. In September 2025, two accidents on consecutive days in Equateur killed at least 193 people. One involved a whaleboat carrying nearly 500 passengers that caught fire in Lukolela territory. Government reports counted 107 dead, 209 rescued and 146 missing.
In January, a similar Congo River boat collision at Bolomba, also in Equateur, involved a motorised pirogue and a whaleboat. At least six people died and 73 were rescued, according to a civil society panel in the province.
In July, a boat carrying students home from state exams sank in Kasai province. Officials counted 20 bodies and 80 survivors, yet a witness told the Associated Press that more than 200 people were aboard. François Malepo, who heads the civil society group in Ilebo, said at the time that shipowners ‘don’t care about human lives’.
The causes of a Congo River boat collision barely change. State media blamed improper loading and night navigation after the Basankusu sinking in September 2025. This time the officer described an overloaded boat on a dark river.
The rules exist on paper. Provincial lawmakers complained in January that the ban on night navigation and the life jacket requirement were not being applied.
Mputu himself linked night navigation to many past accidents when he spoke to the Associated Press. This crash happened at night, too.
Investigators from Mbandaka are expected to establish what caused the Congo River boat collision and who was responsible. The seized boat gives them something to work with. Whether the inquiry names anyone is another matter.
The 30 dead have been buried. The answers will take longer.
