At least 24 schoolchildren killed after fire engulfs schools in rebel-controlled Congo

At least 24 children were killed after a fire swept through the rebel-controlled city of Bukavu in eastern Congo on Thursday, destroying two schools and around 300 wooden houses, an official from the rebel administration said. The dead included 19 girls and five boys, said Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, vice governor of South Kivu province, where Bukavu is located, in the administration appointed by the Rwanda-backed AFC/M23 movement. Bwenge said 29 people were injured in the blaze and that an investigation was underway to determine its cause. The rebels seized Bukavu during a rapid advance across eastern Congo early last year. The fire had been extinguished by the afternoon, but white smoke continued to rise from piles of rubble and twisted corrugated metal sheets, a Reuters witness at the scene said. "We were on the avenue and the children had just gone to school when the fire started not far from the school," said witness Pierre Mudahama. "Ambulances arrived to take away the bodies and the injured." Residents and health workers said the final death toll could rise as authorities continued to assess the devastation. One man at the scene told Reuters that he had helped load 17 bodies, including those of adults as well as children, into an ambulance. A local health centre said it had received 10 bodies of people killed in the fire, while another hospital said it had admitted more than 50 students, 14 of whom died.