In 1892, about two thousand people worked on the railroad, of which an average of one hundred and fifty workers per month lost their lives due to smallpox, dysentery, beriberi and exhaustion.

The Barbadians refused to leave the boats in the port of Matadi until they were forced by firearms.

Several tens of thousands of workers, mostly convicts and forced labor, were employed for this renovation.

[2] In spite of the technical and financial difficulties related to the construction of the railway line, it quickly proved to be profitable, mainly thanks to the transportation of ivory and rubber.

[2] Joseph Conrad witnessed the hard labour on the railway line, when he worked in the Congo Free State, and subsequently mentioned this in his well-known novel Heart of Darkness.