World

KINSHASA, Congo (UP) -- An overloaded passenger boat carrying scores of traders sank in the swift waters of the Congo River, killing 16 people, officials said Monday.

The boat carrying 180 people possibly crashed against jagged rocks after dark fell Saturday near the town Lukolela, 450 kilometers (260 miles) north of Kinshasa, said Yves Mobando, governor of Equateur province, where the accident occurred. Mobando said the remaining 164 passengers swam to safety or were rescued by villagers on the river bank. Officials from the government and a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo are investigating the accident, he said. Two U.N. vessels arrived shortly after the accident and carried survivors to nearby Mbandaka, 200 kilometers (124 miles) to the northeast. In January, dozens of people were killed when an overloaded ferry boat sank in the Kasai river. After decades of war, corruption and neglect, Congo has only a few hundred kilometers (miles) of paved roads, making the Congo River, its tributaries and other waterways lifelines for commerce in the vast country the size of Western Europe.