Congolese Refugees Dead After Boat Capsizes on L.Albert

{{At least 98 people died after a boat capsized on Saturday on Lake Albert, which lies between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday.}}

“Based on information UNHCR has received so far from the authorities and refugees, 41 people were rescued and 98 bodies recovered,” the agency said in a statement.

The boat, which was ferrying refugees from Uganda back to their native DR Congo, may have been carrying as many as 250 people, according to the UNHCR.

It was “one of two that left from Hoima district on the eastern (Ugandan) side of the lake on Saturday morning, carrying refugees who had been living at Kyangwali refugee settlement but were heading back home to eastern DRC of their own accord”, the agency said.

The death toll given by the agency is much higher than the 19 initially reported by Ugandan media on Saturday.

The survivors have been taken to Uganda’s northwestern Bundibugyo district, where they are receiving care from the Ugandan government, the UNHCR and the agency’s partners, the statement said.

{france24}