At least seven people have been confirmed dead when a cargo train derailed in the South-East Democratic Republic of Congo, the second accident in the area in a fortnight.
Confirming the incident, a local official from the National Railway Company said that the accident occurred in the village of Buyofwe, Lualaba province on Saturday. The freight train which was made up of eight wagons was leaving Tenke in Lualaba province for Kananga in the Kasai region.
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“Seven people died and 14 were seriously injured” in the latest accident, Lualaba Interior Minister, Deoda Kapenda, told newsmen on Monday.
“The toll could rise because a large number of clandestine passengers were trapped under the upturned wagons,” he said.
The derailment comes two weeks after a train crash in the same village in mid-March that left at least 75 people dead and 125 injured, according to the government in Kinshasa. Train derailments are not uncommon in the DRC, because of the lack of passenger trains or passable roads, passengers often use freight trains to travel long distances.
Contributed by Chukwuebuka Festus
Source:Africanews