India, April 19 -- A boat carrying fuel caught fire and capsized in the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in at least 143 deaths.

According to an AFP report, around a dozen people remain missing following the tragic incident. Joseph Lokondo, a local civil society leader who assisted in burying the victims, has estimated the "provisional death toll at 145."

Hundreds of passengers were crowded onto a wooden boat on the Congo River in northwest DRC on Tuesday when the blaze broke out, according to Josephine-Pacifique Lokumu, head of a delegation of national deputies from the region.

The horrific fire broke out when the boat was near Mbandaka, capital of Equateur Province, at the confluence of the Ruki and the world's deepest Congo R...