Dozens feared dead after boat capsizes on DRC side of Lake Kivu

Dozens of people are feared dead after a boat sank on Lake Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, government officials and a civil society leader said on Tuesday.

According to reports the accident occurred early on Monday around 20 minutes after the boat departed from an island in the lake bound for the regional capital Goma 30 km away, Norbert Rugusha, a government official in charge of the lake, said without elaborating.

The boat had left the village of Kisheke on Idjwi island in Lake Kivu, which divides DRCongo and Rwanda, with up to 80 people aboard at around midnight on Sunday, according to Esther Muratwa, president of a local civic rights group.

She said fishermen who went to help with the rescue found 19 survivors.