100 people killed in Congo train accident
Xan Rice and East Africa correspondent agencies
Friday August 3, 2007
The Guardian
At least 100 people are feared dead and dozens injured after a goods train derailed in Democratic Republic of Congo.
A brake failure caused seven of the train's 10 wagons to leave the track between the cities of Ilebo and Kananga in West Kasai province late on Wednesday night. Some of the injured, who had been riding the wagons illicitly, were carried on people's backs and on bicycles to a hospital six miles away.
Helicopters belonging the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo later flew medics, nurses and equipment to the crash site, where some passengers remained trapped beneath the wagons.
A spokesman for the state railway SNCC told Agence France-Presse that the high death toll was due to "clandestine passengers who habitually travel aboard goods carriages unbeknown to SNCC agents".
After the accident the train driver was able to detach the locomotive from the wagons and continued the journey to raise the alarm, the spokesman said.
Rail accidents are common in Congo, where the Belgian-built railways have scarcely been maintained since independence in 1960. But with only a few hundred miles of decent roads across the vast country, trains remain a popular mode of travel.
President Joseph Kabila, who is attempting to rebuild the country after years of war, has sent an investigation team to the crash site.
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Congo train crash death toll expected to rise
Sun 5 Aug 2007, 12:02 GMT
By Marlene Rabaud
KAKENGE RIVER, Congo, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Rescue workers have abandoned hope of finding more survivors nearly four days after a train crash killed at least 100 people in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bodies lay crushed between eight freight cars that jumped the tracks on Wednesday night near a bridge over the Kakenge River, some 170 km (105 miles) northwest of Kananga, capital of Western Kasai province.
Workers wearing rags over their faces to protect against the overpowering stench of decomposing corpses continued to work on Sunday to clear the tracks.
But cranes needed to lift the heavy wagons have yet to arrive and rescuers fear the death toll will climb when the cars are removed, revealing more bodies trapped beneath.
The dead had been riding illegally on the roof or in between carriages of the freight train when the accident happened.
Medical staff who arrived soon after the crash, which Congolese rail officials say was caused by a brake failure, said many victims had died due to lack of medical supplies and the remoteness of the site.
"We are not equipped. We are working without gloves, without equipment, without bicycles or means of transportation," Pierre Malienge, head of the local Red Cross office, told Reuters.
"We are making the 12 km (7 miles) trip back and forth (to the crash site) on foot."
Malienge said many victims bled to death trying to reach the nearest clinic, where doctors were forced to operate on the injured in a maternity delivery room.
More than 100 seriously wounded were still being treated on Saturday. Many of the dead have already been buried at a site not far from the crash.
Some medical supplies donated by foreign relief agencies were initially sent from Kananga by helicopter. But several tonnes of medicine and medical equipment took three days to arrive from the distant capital, Kinshasa.
The central African nation has few paved roads outside the capital and many Congolese rely on trains as the only affordable way of crossing the vast interior.
Derailments are a regular occurrence and fatal accidents are common in Congo, which is still recovering from decades of mismanagement and a 1998-2003 war that killed an estimated 4 million people and left infrastructure in ruins. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kananga)
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Sun 5 Aug 2007, 12:02 GMT
By Marlene Rabaud
KAKENGE RIVER, Congo, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Rescue workers have abandoned hope of finding more survivors nearly four days after a train crash killed at least 100 people in a remote part of Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bodies lay crushed between eight freight cars that jumped the tracks on Wednesday night near a bridge over the Kakenge River, some 170 km (105 miles) northwest of Kananga, capital of Western Kasai province.
Workers wearing rags over their faces to protect against the overpowering stench of decomposing corpses continued to work on Sunday to clear the tracks.
But cranes needed to lift the heavy wagons have yet to arrive and rescuers fear the death toll will climb when the cars are removed, revealing more bodies trapped beneath.
The dead had been riding illegally on the roof or in between carriages of the freight train when the accident happened.
Medical staff who arrived soon after the crash, which Congolese rail officials say was caused by a brake failure, said many victims had died due to lack of medical supplies and the remoteness of the site.
"We are not equipped. We are working without gloves, without equipment, without bicycles or means of transportation," Pierre Malienge, head of the local Red Cross office, told Reuters.
"We are making the 12 km (7 miles) trip back and forth (to the crash site) on foot."
Malienge said many victims bled to death trying to reach the nearest clinic, where doctors were forced to operate on the injured in a maternity delivery room.
More than 100 seriously wounded were still being treated on Saturday. Many of the dead have already been buried at a site not far from the crash.
Some medical supplies donated by foreign relief agencies were initially sent from Kananga by helicopter. But several tonnes of medicine and medical equipment took three days to arrive from the distant capital, Kinshasa.
The central African nation has few paved roads outside the capital and many Congolese rely on trains as the only affordable way of crossing the vast interior.
Derailments are a regular occurrence and fatal accidents are common in Congo, which is still recovering from decades of mismanagement and a 1998-2003 war that killed an estimated 4 million people and left infrastructure in ruins. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kananga)
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.