KIGALI: Floods and mudslides hit northern and western Rwanda following severe rains, the state-run radio said Wednesday, warning that the death toll could rise.
According to the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency’s (RBA) website, the rain that poured last night caused calamity in the Northern and Western Provinces. According to initial figures released by the administrations of these provinces, 115 people have been declared dead. Images posted to the RBA’s Twitter account showed buildings submerged in mud rivers, roads blocked off by landslides, and flooded fields.
The floodwaters were still rising, according to the broadcaster, posing a threat to “more lives.” The majority of the deaths happened in Western Province, which borders Lake Kivu, and the floodwaters carried away homes and infrastructure, causing road closures. Jane Munyemana, a resident of Rubavu in Western Province, said she was at home with her children when the building collapsed, but they escaped safely. She stated that they intended to remove the floodwaters and sleep in it tonight but were concerned that it might rain again and destroy whatever was left. Rains and flooding have also hit other countries of East Africa, including Uganda, where six people have been killed.
Massive landslides in Rwanda
Marie Solange Kayisire, Rwanda’s minister in charge of emergency management, told RBA that relief work began immediately, including assisting to bury victims of disaster and delivering supplies to individuals whose homes were destroyed. She urged residents to increase patrols, particularly at night, so that people could be relocated to safer areas when it rained excessively.
According to one woman in Northern Province, when the floods began, large landslides caused trees to fall and cover the road down there. According to the local Red Cross, six people died in neighboring Uganda after landslides hit their homes after days of excessive rain. According to the report, five of the people who died belonged to the same family and came from the same village.
The Red Cross shared images of local farmers perched on steeply terraced slopes digging through fresh mudslides and homes buried up to their rooftops in mud. During the rainy season, East Africa is frequently afflicted by flooding and landslides, despite the fact that numerous countries in the Horn of Africa are experiencing the worst drought in decades. According to experts, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change, with Africa facing the brunt of the consequences.
According to regional authorities, at least 14 people died last month as torrential rains caused floods and landslides in southern Ethiopia. Hundreds of livestock died, and hundreds of homes were destroyed. In May 2020, at least 65 people died in Rwanda as a result of torrential rains, while at least 194 people died in Kenya. During two months of relentless rain, at least 265 people died and tens of thousands were displaced at the end of 2019. In Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, the heavy rains harmed about two million people and washed away tens of thousands of livestock.
