The accident, which happened on Wednesday on Lake Tumba in the northern Equateur province, involved three large canoes that had been attached together, said provincial interior minister Crispin Mputu Molia.

“We’ve found 40 bodies so far and dozens of survivors. There’s also a still-undetermined number of people missing,” he told AFP.

A local resident, Dieu-Merci Akula, gave the death toll as 54.

“Yesterday, we had 52 bodies, and two more were found this morning,” he said.

The boat was carrying the body of a deceased woman and more than 200 people to a funeral in the village of Ikoko-Bonginda, the sources said.

Mputu said witnesses had told officials the boat ran into large waves.

“The drivers were unable to cope,” he said.

An investigation has been opened to determine the exact cause of the accident, he added.

Mputu said the boat did not have a passenger list, making it “difficult to say if it was overloaded”.

The DRC, an African giant rich in natural resources but racked by decades of conflict, is a frequent scene of deadly lake and riverboat tragedies.

The absence of passenger lists often complicates search and rescue operations and makes it impossible to establish an exact death toll.