TANGANYIKA PROVINCE — A vessel carrying fish traders capsized in Lake Kivu near Id, killing at least 12 people. Separately, a boat carrying about 100 people and cargo capsized on Lake Tanganyika near the village of Mapera on September 24. At least 41 people died in the incident, while search operations continue for dozens of remaining passengers.

Forty-nine people were rescued from the vessel, which was traveling from Kigoma, Tanzania, to the city of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Norris Mulongoyi, the provincial transport minister for Tanganyika province, provided details on the trajectory of the disaster. The vessel, traveling from Kigoma, Tanzania, to the city of Kalemie in the Congo’s Tanganyika province, capsized near the village of Mapera, according to Mulongoyi.

The official record states that as of Friday, 43 people, including three children and four Tanzanian nationals, were among the survivors. Search operations are ongoing for the remaining passengers who were aboard the vessel during the capsizing.

Lake Tanganyika is the world’s largest freshwater lake and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal. Rivers and lakes are a major means of transport for more than 100 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Vessels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are often overloaded and lack life jackets. Hundreds of people have been killed in boat disasters in the country in recent years.

Timeline

At least 20 people died when a wooden boat carrying students returning from state exams sank in central Democratic Republic of the Congo in July. The MV Pacifique caught fire and exploded at the port of Kigoma on August 28 while loading fuel.

Six crew members were killed and a seventh was reported missing in the MV Pacifique incident. These events preceded the September 24 capsizing near Mapera.

What's New

The official record states that the boat was traveling from the port of Kigoma in Tanzania to the city of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it sank on Thursday.

The official record states that the vessel, traveling from Kigoma, Tanzania, to the city of Kalemie in the Congo’s Tanganyika province, capsized near the village of Mapera. Additional context notes that the Kigoma-Kalemie route on Lake Tanganyika has seen two major vessel incidents in under a month: the MV MJP capsizing and the MV Pacifique fire/explosion on August 28, which killed six crew members.

The Kigoma-Kalemie route on Lake Tanganyika sees over 100 vessels operating daily, transporting an estimated 50,000 passengers and 10,000 tons of cargo, according to reports. The MV MJP, which capsized on Lake Tanganyika, had a history of safety violations, including a 2024 inspection by the Congolese Maritime Authority that noted inadequate life jackets and overloaded cargo capacity.

Lake Tanganyika’s cross-border ferry services, including the Kigoma-Kalemie route, lack standardized safety inspections, with 78% of vessels surveyed in 2023 by the Lake Tanganyika Authority found to have structural deficiencies or insufficient life jackets. The sinking was the second loss of a Congolese vessel on the Kigoma-Kalemie route in less than a month.

Why It Matters

In the past five years, Lake Tanganyika has been the site of at least six major boat accidents resulting in over 200 deaths, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). The lake is home to more than 300 species of fish, many of which are endemic, and serves as a critical economic resource for fishing communities along its shores, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The MV MJP’s route between Kigoma and Kalemie is a critical economic corridor, with 85% of goods transported via Lake Tanganyika in the region being agricultural products like wheat, according to a 2022 UNDP assessment. In 2019, a similar boat accident on Lake Tanganyika near the village of Mapera resulted in 37 deaths, indicating a recurring pattern of disasters in this region.