Twenty people are confirmed to have been rescued so far. The boat was traveling in the northeast of the Congo as part of a convoy of other vessels, and the passengers were primarily merchants returning home for Christmas, said Joseph Joseph Kangolingoli, the mayor of Ingende, the last town before the site of the accident.

According to Ndolo Kaddy, a resident of Ingende, the ferry contained “more than 400 people because it made two ports, Ingende and Loolo, on the way to Boende, so there is reason to believe that there were more deaths.”

Congolese officials have often warned against overloading and vowed to punish those violating safety measures for water transportation. However, in remote areas where most passengers come from, many cannot afford public transport for the few available roads.

At least 78 people drowned in October when an overloaded boat sank in the country’s east while 80 lost their lives in a similar accident near Kinshasa in June. The latest accident prompted anger at the government for not equipping the convoy with flotation devices.

Nesty Bonina, a member of local government and a prominent figure in the town of Mbandaka, the capital of the Equateur province where the ferry sank, said he condemned the authorities for not properly handling the recent capsizings.

“How can a ship navigate at night under the watchful eye of river service agents? And now we’re recording over a hundred deaths,” lamented Mr. Bonina. The capsizing of overloaded boats is also becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are giving up the few available roads in favor of wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods for security reasons.

The roads are often caught up in the deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block major access routes. Hundreds have already been killed or declared missing in such accidents so far this year.