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KINSHASA, Congo (DRC) – At least 50 people were killed on Saturday and more than 100 burned to the second degree when a tanker truck in Congo collided with a bus.
"We deplore the deaths," Atu Matubuana, acting governor of Kongo Center, told the Associated Press. Officials were preparing to identify charred bodies and bury them, Matubuana said.
The accident occurred in the village of Mbuba, not far from the city of Kisantu and about 200 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kinshasa. Kisantu is on the main highway between the capital and the port of Matadi.
The photos posted by a local journalist show some injured, skin burned by burns, crammed into the back of a van and stuck between bikers.
Health officials have been instructed to prepare local hospitals to "do all that is necessary" to treat all victims, said the acting governor.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo said it had offered government aid to the wounded, with nine ambulances en route to Kisantu to facilitate medical evacuations.
In 2010, more than 200 people were killed during the overthrow and fire of a tanker truck in the province of South Kivu, Congo. Many victims had tried to recover the fuel that was flowing when it caught fire.
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