Up to 33 people were feared dead Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a freight train carrying fuel plunged into a ravine.
The UN’s radio Okapi said there had been 33 fatalities with an unknown number of others injured or burned in the accident in the province of Lualaba.
Jean-Marie Tshizainga, the minister of mines of Lualaba province gave a toll of eight dead and several others injured.
“The toll could be significantly higher,” he told AFP.
The train was transporting 13 oil tankers and derailed while climbing a slope near the station of Lubudi. It fell into a ravine and the tankers caught fire, radio Okapi said.
“It’s a freight train that derailed and it wasn’t supposed to be carrying passengers. If there were people on board, we consider them to be illegal travellers,” said Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba, a senior official from the national railway company.
The region has witnessed several deadly train accidents. In 2014, a freight train derailed killing 74 people and injured 163, according to officials but the Red Cross said up to 200 corpses had been buried.
The national news agency a month later reported 136 deaths.
Another train accident in July 1987 near the Zambian border killed 150 people after crashing into a truck.
Source: AFP
