Seven people drowned after a transport boat sank after hitting rocks on a lake in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the weekend, local authorities said on Monday. Lake and river transport is widely used in the DRC as the highway system is poor, but accidents are common, often caused by overloading and the unsafe state of vessels. The “total number of deaths is seven,” the local minister of transport and communication in South Kivu province, Claude Swedy Basila said in a statement.
