A wooden river vessel carrying students home after national examinations has sunk in central Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 20 people and leaving more than 100 others missing, authorities confirmed on Friday. The boat went down at the confluence of the Kasai and Sankuru rivers in Kasai province, near the territory of Ilebo — a remote inland area some 700 kilometres east of the capital, Kinshasa, accessible largely by river transport.

According to François Kabula, the administrator of Ilebo territory, over 200 people had boarded the vessel, which was travelling from Kalina port to Ilebo. Eighty survivors were pulled from the water, primarily thanks to the intervention of local fishermen who were nearby when the boat broke apart and sank. However, official immigration manifests listed only around 30 passengers — a discrepancy that a provincial deputy, Pierre Sosthène Kambidi, described as deeply troubling.