Congo sends plane of aid for train accident victims

The government rushed a planeload of medical aid to survivors of a train wreck that killed about 100 people in southern Congo, officials said Friday.

Deputy Health Minister Ferdinand Ntua said several senior government officials were also aboard the plane that took off from Kinshasa to assess the damage and help bury the dead at the scene of the accident, about 170 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Kananga, capital of Kasai Occidental province.

Officials say seven cars flipped off the rails just before midnight Wednesday and the train's locomotive stopped responding to controls as it traveled between the cities of Ilebo and Kananga, leaving the conductor unable to brake.

Medard Ilunga, head of Congo's state railway agency, said 102 people were known to have been injured in the wreck.

Most of the injured survivors had been taken by foot and bicycle to a local hospital 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the wreck site, said Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force.

Roads and cars are few and far between in much of mineral-rich Congo's vast interior, which is undeveloped because of widespread corruption and mismanagement. The Europe-sized nation's rail system is similarly dilapidated. Most of Congo's railroads were built more than 100 years ago, when the country was a Belgian colony.

The United Nations has a large, established force in Congo to help the embattled country in its transition to democracy following decades of war and corrupt dictatorship.