Wooden passenger boats that are more than five years old are to be banned from a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo where hundreds of people are feared to have drowned at the weekend.
Some 45 people are known to have died when an overcrowded boat sank on Lake Mai-Ndombe. About 200 remain missing.
The partial ban on older wooden vessels was announced by a provincial governor.
DR Congo sees frequent boat accidents on its waterways, which are a popular means of transport across the country.
The country, which is about the size of mainland western Europe, has a poor road network, and large areas are inaccessible except by air or boat.
Many of the passenger ferries on its lakes and rivers are poorly maintained and overloaded.
The latest accident took place on Saturday evening in Mai-Ndombe province in western DR Congo, involving a type of flat-bottomed wooden vessel known as a balieniere or whaler.
