The vessel sank late on Friday while travelling in a convoy toward Boende. Joseph Joseph Kangolingoli, mayor of Ingende, the last river town before the accident site, said many passengers were merchants returning home for Christmas. The precise number aboard was unclear, complicating the effort to establish a final toll.
Ndolo Kaddy, a resident of Ingende, estimated that more than 400 people may have been on the ferry after it collected passengers at Ingende and Loolo. That figure was a witness estimate rather than a confirmed manifest. Central government authorities had not issued a detailed account of the accident or rescue operation at the time of the reports, and the casualty figures could not be independently verified.
The ferry was described as overloaded. The accident renewed scrutiny of safety on the country’s waterways, where officials have repeatedly warned operators against carrying excessive numbers of passengers and have promised penalties for breaches. Local political figure Nesty Bonina criticised authorities over the vessel travelling at night and the reported lack of flotation equipment accompanying the convoy.
River travel remains essential across much of Congo. In remote areas, public transport on land can be unaffordable, roads are scarce, and insecurity can make existing routes difficult or dangerous to use. Those conditions push passengers and goods onto wooden vessels that can be crowded beyond safe limits. Reliable passenger records are often unavailable, delaying confirmation of how many people are missing after an accident.
The Busira River sinking occurred less than four days after another boat capsized in the country’s northeast, killing 25 people. It also followed two other major disasters during 2024. At least 78 people drowned in October when an overloaded vessel sank on Lake Kivu in eastern Congo. In June, another 80 people died in an accident on the Kwa River near Mushie, in Mai-Ndombe province.
The reported convoy arrangement also raised questions about oversight on the river that night, including whether safety personnel had enforced capacity limits or required adequate lifesaving equipment.
Search and rescue work on the Busira therefore unfolded against a record of repeated mass-casualty accidents on Congo’s lakes and rivers. With more than 100 people still unaccounted for, the confirmed toll represented an early assessment rather than a final accounting. Officials had yet to provide a verified passenger total or explain what enforcement measures, if any, had been applied before the ferry began its journey.
