Benaleka train accident

In the railway accident Benaleka on 1 August 2007 at Benaleka ran away in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a brake failure the car of a freight train, go down to the numerous blind passengers. More than 100 dead and 220 injured, 128 of them seriously, were the result.

The train was on the railway line Lubumbashi Ilebo the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer du Congo of Ilebo to Kananga on the road when in a remote area in Benaleka, about 220 km north- west of Kananga in the province of West Kasai, 23 against clock the brakes failed and the train was unrestrained by a gradient. It derailed all eight (according to another source: 10) freight cars of the train, seven overturned and buried travelers among themselves.

The injured had to walk 12 kms to the nearest hospital or were transported there with bicycles or carried by others. Later, medical personnel of the Mission de l' Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUC ) was used. The locomotive remained in the track, so that the engineer was able to get going again and to get help. According to another source, he fled to escape the vengeance of those affected.