Many dead in fuel truck explosion in DR Congo

The governor of the province of Kongo-Central has announced that a fuel tanker explosion in the western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday night left "several people dead and seriously burned".

The accident, still unexplained, occurred on national road 1, near the village of Mbuba, in the territory of Madimba, 120 km west of Kinshasa. According to civil society sources, the vehicle was heading towards the Congolese capital and exploded near a small market.

A tanker had exploded after a collision at the same location in October 2018, killing more than 50 people.

"Several dead and severely burned in Mbuba this evening after another tanker explosion on the RN-1," Kongo-Central governor Guy Bandu said on Twitter.

No further toll was available early Thursday morning.

"It is more than time to take drastic and courageous measures to strengthen the regulation of transport, especially that of flammable products, to put an end to this cycle of disasters. The RN1 should not be a graveyard," the governor commented in his tweet.

The RN1 links Kinshasa to the DRC's only maritime outlets, Matadi and Boma.