A fire swept through two adjacent schools in the rebel controlled city of Bukavu, Congo, on Thursday, killing at least 26 students and injuring dozens more, the South Kivu provincial government said, though other officials cited somewhat different figures as the disaster’s full scope became clear.
The provincial government said in a press release that 19 girls and seven boys died, adding that the toll could still rise. Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the rebel group M23, which controls Bukavu, gave differing figures at different points, first saying 24 students were killed, later cited alongside a breakdown of 19 girls and five boys, and separately cited in connection with a total death toll of 29. Local media described the toll as provisional given the scale and speed of the disaster.
The fire broke out around 8 a.m. local time in Bukavu’s Chimpunda neighborhood, according to United Nations operated broadcaster Radio Okapi, before spreading to Ujamaa primary school and Furaha secondary school. Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, vice governor of South Kivu province, told Reuters that the fire also destroyed about 300 wooden homes in the surrounding settlement.
What We Know So Far
Local neighborhood administrator Moise Lubala told the Associated Press that the fire started at a house before spreading to the two adjoining schools. He said several students became trapped inside Furaha secondary school, with some suffocating as they tried to escape. “The exit was too narrow, so some students began jumping through windows while others rushed toward the door. As everyone tried to force their way out, students were pushed over and trampled on,” Lubala said.
Local official Patrice Buduge told AFP that the fire triggered a violent stampede that forced students to trample over one another or seek dangerous escape routes, with many fainting or losing consciousness, and that some deaths resulted from the stampede itself rather than the fire.
Accounts of how many people were injured and being treated also varied, and some figures appeared to overlap with reported death tolls in ways that were difficult to fully reconcile. Kanyuka said 29 people were being treated at local medical facilities, including 21 in intensive care, with a separate breakdown citing 17 critically injured patients at Kadutu General Hospital and four at Bukavu Provincial General Hospital, figures that together total 21 rather than 29, a discrepancy that remained unresolved in available reporting. Nurse Ciza Jean-Baptiste, who treated patients at the Nyamulagira BDOM health center, told the AP that a mix of boys and girls of different ages arrived still wearing their school uniforms, and that medical staff struggled to keep an exact count of the injured given the volume of patients. Christophe Zigashane, a nurse at a separate local clinic, told AFP his facility alone received around 50 students and several teachers in critical condition from asphyxiation, with some dying at the scene and others later at area hospitals.
The cause of the fire had not been determined as of the latest reporting. Lubala said the neighborhood where the fire started is densely populated, with most homes built from wood, a detail that likely contributed to how rapidly the flames spread between structures. The AFC/M23 movement said its emergency teams deployed and managed to contain the fire, and that it had mobilized assistance for those affected while calling for calm, solidarity and continued vigilance as investigations proceed.
Why This Matters
The fire adds to a troubling recent pattern in Bukavu, which Congolese media noted experienced a separate fire the previous Sunday that destroyed more than 45 houses. The recurrence of major fires within the same week points to significant vulnerabilities tied to the prevalence of wooden housing construction in densely populated neighborhoods, conditions that have made the city particularly susceptible to fast spreading fires.
The disaster also unfolds against the backdrop of severe instability in eastern Congo. Bukavu has been controlled since February 2025 by the Rwanda backed AFC/M23 movement, part of a broader conflict in which more than 100 armed groups are competing for control of the region’s mineral wealth, valued in the trillions of dollars and considered critical to much of the world’s technology industry. Congo’s national government continues to struggle to exert control over the eastern part of the country amid this fragmented security situation.
Compounding the crisis, the region’s health system is already under severe strain from the deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history, which has killed more than 3,300 people and produced more than 6,800 confirmed cases. The influx of dozens of severely injured fire and stampede victims into local hospitals and clinics comes at a moment when medical infrastructure in the region is already stretched thin by that ongoing epidemic, raising concerns about the capacity of local facilities to adequately treat both sets of patients simultaneously.
What Happens Next
Investigations into the cause of the fire are continuing under the oversight of the AFC/M23 administration currently governing Bukavu, though no timeline has been given for when a cause might be determined. Given the conflicting casualty figures reported by different officials and outlets, a fully reconciled death toll is likely to take additional time to establish as medical facilities continue treating the injured and identifying victims.
The recurrence of major fires in Bukavu within the same week is likely to raise questions about fire prevention and emergency response capacity in the city’s densely built, wood constructed neighborhoods, though it remains unclear whether the AFC/M23 administration or humanitarian organizations operating in the region will pursue specific measures in response.
Reporting drawn from the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters
