Hundreds are dead and at least one hundred more injured after an oil tanker overturned and burst into flames in eastern Congo, officials and witnesses said Saturday.
The truck overturned as it was attempting to pass a minibus late Friday evening near the village of Sange, about 30 kilometres north of Uvira near the Burundi border.
According to Mana Lungwe, manager of the Congolese company that owns the tanker, oil first began spilling from the tanker, then burst into flames about an hour later.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Congo counts at least 61 children and 36 women among the 219 people confirmed dead. The United Nations estimated the death toll at 220, while a police chief in Sange, Flament Baliwa, pegged the toll at 232 dead.
The high death toll is being blamed on the rush of bystanders who descended on the wrecked tanker hoping to illegally siphon fuel. There are reports Pakistani peacekeepers from a nearby UN base tried to warn people away from the area, but they were ignored. The victims were caught in a massive fireball when the wreckage exploded.
A spokesperson with the Red Cross said many of the victims died instantly, while nearly a dozen others died from severe burns after arriving in hospital.
UN peacekeepers rushed to evacuate more than 200 wounded from the scene by helicopter and ambulance, while Red Cross teams carried the charred bodies from the scene in body bags and buried them in two mass graves a few kilometres away.
According to a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, Madnodje Mounoubai, several homes, many of which were made with dried leaves and mud, and a local market were destroyed in the fire.
"A fire started, and the people trying to siphon the fuel were killed or injured," Mounoubai told The Associated Press.
At the time of the crash, hundreds of people who had gathered to watch the World Cup were milling at the roadside.
"It was so terrible, we lost so many family and friends," 25-year-old Umoja Ruzibira told AP. He was less than 100 metres away when he heard the explosion and saw a fireball engulf thatch huts in a 20-metre radius.
"There were so many men, women and children around when it happened," Ruzibira said.
The driver of the tanker was injured in the accident and was taken to hospital before the blast.
Such tragedy is not unheard of in Congo, where locals often descend on accident scenes or stalled vehicles to siphon fuel.
In Nigeria, thousands have died trying to siphon oil from ruptured pipelines.
The ICRC has sent body bags and medical supplies to the Congo. The UN said it has transported 35 of the wounded to Bukavu via helicopter, while other peacekeepers are transporting people to local hospitals and clinics.
