Congo truck crash kills at least 42

The town’s police commander says the truck was overloaded and that 16 children are among the dead from the crash in Kasai-Oriental province.

Congo is a vast country the size of Western Europe,but has only several hundred miles of paved road. Many of those roads are in poor repair,as are the overloaded vehicles that frequently traverse them.

Poor roads lead many Congolese to take boats,even if they cannot swim. Boats are often in poor repair and overloaded,and have little industry oversight.