Witnesses looked on helplessly as an overcrowded boat carrying 278 passengers capsized in Lake Kivu in Goma on Thursday, shortly before it could reach the port of Kituku. The death toll currently stands at 78 and is expected to rise.

Watch a video of the incident here: 

The Free Press Journal reported that the boat, designed to carry 80 people, was overcrowded because M23 rebel conflict on land has forced an increasing number of people to travel by water.

Lake Kivu lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

The governor of South Kivu province, Jean Jacques Puris, told Reuters that it would take at least three days to determine how many people died because they had not managed to find all the bodies yet.

It is not clear how many people have managed to survive the ordeal.