Bukavu Fire Kills at Least 26 Students in Two Schools

A fire that broke out on Thursday, September 10, in the city of Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 26 students, the provincial government of South Kivu announced. The blaze started in a residential building in a densely populated neighborhood where most structures are made of wood, then spread to two neighboring schools, Furaha Secondary School and Ujamaa Primary School.

The provincial government said in a statement that the dead included 19 girls and seven boys, and warned that the death toll could still rise. At least 29 injured people were taken to medical facilities, and hospital staff on the ground reportedly struggled to keep an accurate count of admissions given the scale of the disaster.

How the tragedy unfolded

Moiz Lubala, the administrator of the neighborhood where the fire broke out, said the blaze started in a house before spreading to the two adjacent schools. He said the cause of the fire had not been determined, but stressed that the area is densely built up with mostly wooden houses, which allowed the flames to spread quickly.

Some students were trapped inside the Furaha secondary school building, and several suffocated. The building’s exit proved too narrow for the number of children trying to get out.

“The exit was too small, so some students started jumping out of windows while others pushed toward the door. As everyone tried to force their way out, students were pushed and trampled,” Lubala said.

Students from Furaha and Ujamaa, boys and girls of different ages, were brought to the Njamulagira BDOM health center still in their school uniforms. Medical staff struggled to track the exact number of injured given the large number of patients arriving at once. Between 300 and 500 houses were destroyed, along with a nearby clinic.

Casualty figures vary by source

Casualty figures are not consistent across sources. Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesman for the M23 rebel group that controls Bukavu, said earlier in the day that 24 students had died and 29 people were being treated in local health facilities, while the provincial government’s official statement later put the death toll at at least 26.

Separately, Reuters, citing local and medical sources, reported figures that differ considerably. A witness at the scene said he had helped load 17 bodies of deceased men and children into an ambulance. One local health center said it had received 10 bodies, while another hospital said it had treated more than 50 students, 14 of whom died. Corneille Nangaa, coordinator of the rebel alliance that includes M23, said there was still no confirmed figure but that he estimated around ten people had died. The discrepancies most likely stem from the different points in time at which the statements were made, while the full scale of the tragedy was still being established.

A rebel-held city in a region exhausted by an epidemic

Bukavu has been under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group since February 2025. The Congolese government has struggled to assert control over the east of the country, where an estimated more than one hundred armed groups are fighting for control of mineral wealth worth trillions of dollars, resources that are critical to much of the world’s technology industry.

Eastern Congo’s health system is already under heavy strain from the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the disease’s history, which has so far killed more than 3,300 people, with over 6,800 confirmed cases. The Bukavu tragedy is thus hitting a region whose health capacity is already stretched thin, making it harder to treat the injured children.

The cause of the fire had still not been determined at the time of publication, and the provincial government of South Kivu has not said when a final, agreed death toll is expected.