A train accident Thursday evening in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo left 75 dead and 125 injured, according to a new report established Sunday by the public rail transport company and released by the Ministry of Communication.
Following a visit to the site of the derailment, in the province of Lualaba, the director general of the National Railway Company of Congo (SNCC), Fabien Mutomb, “communicated the official toll of 75 deaths and 125 injured, including 28 with serious trauma referred to specialized medical centers,” the Congolese Ministry of Communication said on Twitter late Sunday.
Fabien Mutomb is expected in Kinshasa on Monday “for other practical arrangements related to the management of damage caused by this tragedy”, added the ministry, which had announced a few hours earlier the trip to the site of the boss of the SNCC, “with the members of the Commission of Inquiry”.
Reasons still unknown
The train came from Luena, in the neighboring province of Haut-Lomami and was heading for the mining town of Tenke.
It derailed Thursday evening at 11:50 p.m. at the level of the village of Buyofwe, about 200 km from Kolwezi, “at a place where there are ravines”, in which 7 of the 15 wagons fell, he added.
The reasons for the accident were not specified by the authorities, but the dilapidated state of the rails is probably one of the causes.
Train derailments are frequent in the DRC, as are the sinking of overloaded boats on the country’s lakes and rivers.