At least 78 people drowned when a boat carrying 278 passengers capsized in Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, a provincial governor said.

In June, 80 passengers lost their lives when an overloaded boat sank near the capital, Kinshasa. In January, 22 people died in a similar incident on Lake Maï-Ndombe, and in April 2023, six were killed and 64 others went missing following a boat accident on Lake Kivu.

A boat carrying scores of passengers capsized on Lake Kivu in eastern Congo on Thursday, killing at least 50 people, witnesses told The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were on board or how many perished but witnesses said they saw rescue services recover at least 50 bodies from the water.