In Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, a riverboat carrying about fifty people capsized on Friday while they were en route to a village funeral, an official said on Saturday.
"Rescuers were able to remove about fifty dead bodies and we were notified forty minutes after the incident," Thomas Djimasse, head of the civil protection department, told Reuters.
In a phone interview, he said that more people might have drowned in the Mpoko River and that the search was still ongoing.
Over thirty people have died, according to government spokesman Maxime Balalou, who also demanded greater adherence to river transport safety laws.
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