At least 26 children were killed in a fire and subsequent stampede at a school in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Friday, with some pupils reportedly jumping from upper floors as they tried to escape.
The fire broke out at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) Thursday while lessons were underway at Ujamaa primary school in Bukavu, a teacher told AFP.
“In the middle of class, I suddenly heard students screaming, some were jumping from the upper floors, and others were running away through the doors,” teacher Simon Kasamira told AFP from a clinic where he was receiving treatment.
“Parents came from all over looking for their children. That’s when I saw a huge fire engulfing our school built of wooden planks,” he said.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw smoke rising from the site as residents searched through the wreckage.
The blaze triggered a stampede as pupils rushed to escape. Students were “trampled” after some fell during the crush, according to a report by inspectors from the Congolese education ministry released Friday.
Those trapped inside died from “asphyxiation”, the report said.
It added that “fires broke out simultaneously at three different locations about 500 metres (yards) apart”, raising questions about how the disaster began.
UNICEF said 25 children were also injured.
The M23 armed group, which is backed by Rwanda, declared three days of mourning for the victims on Friday. The group has controlled Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, since February 2025 after advancing across large parts of the mineral-rich eastern DRC.
According to M23, the victims included 20 girls and six boys. Funerals are expected to take place Saturday.
Frequent fires
Bukavu, which lies on the shores of Lake Kivu, is known for its densely packed wooden homes built along steep hillsides, making the city particularly vulnerable to devastating fires.
Authorities in Kinshasa and M23 have called for an investigation into the cause of Thursday’s blaze.
The disaster has triggered widespread grief in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has endured more than three decades of conflict involving numerous armed groups fighting for control of territory and resources.
The education ministry expressed “profound sadness” in a statement Thursday, saying the tragedy came amid a “particularly concerning series of fires in Bukavu”.
A fire in the city in October killed 14 people, most of them children.
Fires are common in Congolese cities, where firefighting resources are limited. Specialists say blazes are often fuelled by overcrowded buildings, insufficient spacing between structures and illegal connections to the electricity grid.
Last week, a fire at a wedding in the capital Kinshasa killed 12 people.
Thursday’s blaze also destroyed hundreds of homes, according to the education ministry’s report and a local official.
Congolese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege called for “urgent measures” to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected.
“A tragedy of such magnitude, which has shattered the dreams and futures of so many children, cannot become just another news story,” he wrote on X.
AFP
