Mweka

Mweka is a town in southern-central Democratic Republic of the Congo, situated on the Kasai railway line between Kananga, 250 kilometres away, and the Kasai River port of Ilebo, 172 kilometres away. It is the headquarters of the Territoire de Mweka, an administrative district and one of the territories of the present Kasai Province, and its cathedral is the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mweka. When the rail connection to the Katanga line works, trains reach Lubumbashi 1,406 kilometres to the south-east, and the journey by train and boat to the capital Kinshasa is about 1,000 kilometres. The town is relatively accessible by Congolese standards, and Mweka Airport lies 690 kilometres east of Kinshasa. In August 2007 a freight train crash near Mweka killed about 100 illegal riders, and an Ebola outbreak in the territory killed more than 100 people.