At least 78 people have died after a boat capsized in Lake Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just a few hundred meters from its destination.
The boat was sailing from the town of Minova in South Kivu and sank as it reached the coast of Goma on Thursday morning.
A video circulating online shows the boat tilting to one side and sinking.
There were 278 passengers on board, according to the regional governor.
“It will take at least three days to get the exact numbers, because not all the bodies have been found,” Governor Jean Jacques Purisi told Reuters.
A local activist, Aaron Ashuza, who was at the scene, told the BBC that he saw bodies being pulled out of the river and that the injured were taken to hospital.
At least two children died after being taken to hospital after the accident, according to AFP.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Alfani Buroko Byamungu, 51, who survived, told Reuters news agency that the situation in the water appeared to be “calm”.
He went on to say: “I saw people drowning, many went under, I saw women and children drowning in the water, I also drowned, but God helped me.”
Such accidents are common in DR Congo, where boats are often overcrowded with passengers who are rarely provided with life jackets and often cannot swim.
Rescue operations are made difficult as some ships rarely have passenger signs.
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