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Wooden pbadenger vessels older than five years old are to be banned in a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo where hundreds of people are fearful of drowning this weekend.
It is known that 45 people died when an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe. There are about 200 missing.
The partial ban on old wooden vessels was announced by a provincial governor.
DR Congo has frequent boat accidents on its waterways, which are a popular means of transport across the country.
The country, which is about the size of continental Western Europe, has a poor road network and vast areas are inaccessible except by air or sea.
Many pbadenger bins on its lakes and rivers are poorly maintained and overloaded.
The latest accident occurred Saturday night in the province of Mai-Ndombe, in western DRC, involving a type of flat-bottomed wooden ship called a balieniere or whaler.
On Monday, the governor of the province, Antoine Masamba, announced on Radio Talk Congo that all boats of this type older than five years would be banned from the lake. It is unclear when the ban will come into effect or how many ships will be affected.
According to the governor, the boat carried some 400 pbadengers, of which 45 were confirmed dead and 200 are still missing.
The ship was not supposed to carry more than 80 people. His official manifest indicates that there were about 130 pbadengers.
According to Gaius Kowene of the BBC in Kinshasa, the actual number of people traveling aboard the ship was much higher because it had embarked additional pbadengers on its route.
The ship, bound for Boliangwa, sank about 30 km (18 miles) from the city of Inongo, its starting point and the capital of Mai-Ndombe province.
Mayor of Inongo, Simon Mboo Wemba, said that the captain of the ship had been arrested. He said that most of the pbadengers on board were teachers, fetching their salary.
Last month, at least 167 people died in two boat accidents on Lake Kivu. This prompted Felix Tshisekedi, who became president in January, to force pbadengers to wear a lifejacket.
But it's not clear if those on the boat that sank on Saturday were wearing clothes.
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