In the densely packed neighborhoods of Bukavu, a city long under rebel control in eastern Congo, a fire consumed two schools on Thursday and the panic that followed claimed at least 24 young lives in a stampede. The cause of the blaze remains unknown, yet its consequences ripple outward — through 300 destroyed homes, through hospital floors crowded with injured children, through a nation already grappling with a near-identical tragedy days before. It is a moment that asks, with quiet urgency, how societies protect their most vulnerable when the structures meant to shelter them become the sourc
At least 24 children killed in stampede as fire engulfs schools in DR Congo
At least 24 schoolchildren and additional adults died in a stampede as they fled the fire; many survivors hospitalized with injuries.