A fire broke out Thursday in a school
TOPSHOT - A young woman looks on, while standing among the debris left by the fire in Bukavu, on September 11, 2026. A fire broke out Thursday in a school in the eastern DR Congo city of Bukavu, causing a stampede that killed at least 14 children, local and health sources said.The blaze began while the children were in lessons, forcing some to try to escape by jumping from higher floors, a teacher told AFP.Large columns of smoke were still visible around the site of the fire at midday on Thursday, an AFP correspondent saw. Jospin Mwisha / AFP via Getty Images

At least 26 children were killed in a fire and stampede at a primary school in Bukavu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations children's agency said on Friday.

The fire began at around 9am on Thursday, while classes were under way. UNICEF said 25 further children were injured. An earlier count from local and health sources on Thursday had put the toll at 14.

Simon Kasamira, a teacher at Ujamaa primary school, described what happened from a clinic where he had been admitted.

"In the middle of class, I suddenly heard students screaming, some were jumping from the upper floors, and others were running away through the doors," he told AFP. He said parents came from across the area looking for their children, and that he then saw the fire engulfing the school, which was built of wooden planks.

What the inspectors found

A report published on Friday by inspectors from the Congolese education ministry set out how the deaths occurred.

Children were trampled after falling as they tried to escape, the inspectors said. Those who could not get out suffered asphyxiation.

The report also recorded that fires broke out simultaneously at three different locations about 500 metres apart.

The city

Bukavu is the capital of South Kivu province and sits on the shore of Lake Kivu. It is known for wooden houses built on its hillsides, and fires there are frequent and often deadly.

The city has been under the control of the M23 armed group since February 2025, after the Rwanda-backed force stepped up a campaign to seize territory across mineral-rich eastern DRC.

M23 declared three days of mourning on Friday. It said the dead were 20 girls and six boys. Funerals were expected to be held on Saturday.

What is not yet known

Several things central to understanding this remain unestablished.

The cause of the fire, or fires, has not been determined. The school's construction and whether it met any safety requirement has not been addressed publicly. Nothing has been said about emergency response times or firefighting capacity in a city where wooden housing burns regularly.

Nor is it clear which authority will investigate. Bukavu is administered by an armed group; the education ministry that produced Friday's inspection report answers to a government in Kinshasa that does not control the city. How those two facts are reconciled will shape whether anything is established at all.