At least 24 schoolchildren have died and dozens more were injured after a fire tore through two primary schools in Bukavu, a crowded hillside city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on Thursday morning. The blaze broke out around 8–9 a.m. in the Cimpunda area of Kadutu commune — a densely populated, largely low-income neighbourhood — and rapidly engulfed surrounding wooden structures before reaching the Ujamaa and Furaha primary schools, where lessons were already underway. Provisional death tolls from local authorities range between 24 and 27, with some reports suggesting the figure could still rise. At least 29 to 30 people were also injured. Among the dead, 19 were girls and five were boys, ranging in age from approximately six to fourteen years old.

The fire, whose exact cause remains unknown, began in a cluster of homes before spreading swiftly due to the tight proximity of structures in the neighbourhood — many of them built from wood and corrugated metal. When flames reached the two school compounds, students panicked and a chaotic stampede ensued. A teacher at the Ujamaa school complex described children climbing over one another in a desperate attempt to escape, with those least able to run suffering the worst fates. A nurse at one local medical centre said around ten children arrived already dead, with the injured distributed among several hospitals depending on the severity of their wounds. A mother of four children enrolled at one of the schools described searching desperately through the ruins for her two missing children while two others lay injured in hospital. More than 300 homes were also destroyed in the blaze, leaving hundreds of families without shelter or belongings. A second, separate fire broke out the same day in Cimpunda, destroying dozens more homes though causing no reported fatalities.

Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, has been under the control of M23 rebels since February of last year. The DRC government in Kinshasa issued a statement expressing condolences and ordering assessments of affected schools to ensure that learning could continue, though it did not specify casualty figures. The tragedy follows a deadly fire at a wedding venue in the capital Kinshasa the previous weekend, which prompted the government to order nationwide safety inspections at public gathering places.

Thursday's disaster throws a harsh light on chronic fire safety failures in Congolese cities. Authorities and residents alike have long pointed to the lack of firefighting equipment, the dense packing of informal housing, and illegal electrical connections as persistent hazards. In Kadutu, the main market had also been destroyed by fire just days earlier. For the families of Cimpunda, the immediate reality is already devastating: dozens of children dead, hundreds of homes reduced to rubble, and a community left to grieve one of the deadliest urban fires in the city's recent history.