KINSHASA, Jan 31: Around 200 people are missing after a boat caught fire and sank last week on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a spokesman for the UN mission in the central African country said on Saturday.

Spokesman Alexandre Essome quoted the owner of the ferry as saying he had "no news" of 200 of its passengers, while 301 others had been rescued after Monday's incident on the Congo river.

The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said in a statement that all the passengers' possessions on the ship had burned in the disaster, which was caused by a fire in one of the ferry's engines.-AFP

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