A fire in the rebel-controlled city of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 24 children and destroyed two schools and around 300 wooden houses.
An official from the rebel administration told Reuters on Thursday, that the dead included 19 girls and five boys.
Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, the vice governor of South Kivu province, where Bukavu is located, said the authorities were investigating the cause of the fire.
The AFC/M23 movement, which controls the city, said in a statement that the provisional death toll stood at 24 and that an investigation into the cause and circumstances of the blaze was underway.
The group said 29 people were receiving medical treatment, including 21 in intensive care. The rebels seized Bukavu during a rapid advance across eastern Congo early last year.Bwenge said that 29 people were injured in the blaze.
The fire had been extinguished by the afternoon, but white smoke was still rising from piles of rubble and twisted corrugated metal sheets, according to a Reuters witness. “We were on the avenue and the children had just gone to school when the fire started not far from the school,” witness Pierre Mudahama said.
“Ambulances arrived to take away the bodies and the injured.” he continued.Residents and health workers said the final death toll could rise.One man at the scene told Reuters that he had helped load 17 bodies, including those of adults and children, into an ambulance.
A local health centre said it had received 10 bodies of people killed in the fire, while another hospital said it had admitted more than 50 students, 14 of whom had died.
