Tanganyika DRC map
CNN  — 

At least 50 people were killed and several people are injured after a train derailed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country’s minister of humanitarian affairs told CNN.

Steve Mbikayi said the accident happened around 3 am Thursday morning in the town of Mayibaridi in the south eastern province of Tanganyika.

“Another catastrophe!” Mbikyai wrote on twitter, “on behalf of the government, I offer condolences to the family who have suffered.”

The cause of the accident remains unknown but transport accidents involving many casualties occur frequently in Congo.

At least 24 people, mostly children, died after a freight train veered off the rail in central Kasai province in March.

In 2017, more than 30 people were killed after a freight train carrying tankers of fuel plunged into the river in Southern Lualaba province.