Thursday’s event was the latest boat accident in the central African country, where overpopulation is regularly blamed.
According to South Kivu province governor Jean-Jacques Purusi, at least 78 people perished when the boat carrying 278 people overturned on Lake Kivu in the east of the nation.
Ten or more were admitted to the hospital.
Witnesses said that the overcrowded boat sank as it attempted to land only a few meters from the port of Kituku. From Minova in the South Kivu province, it traveled to Goma in the North Kivu province.
One witness, Francine Munyi, told the Associated Press that she was at the port when the boat.
A few individuals dove into the water.
A video that Reuters claimed to have seen but did not confirm showed the two-deck boat leaning sideways before drowning in calm waters.
Families of the dead and Goma locals, among them 27-year-old Bienfait Sematumba, who claimed to have lost four family members, congregated at the port of Kituku.
When a boat carrying too much cargo sank in the summertime close to Kinshasa, the city, 80 people perished.
