BUKAVU: Over 170 people have lost their lives in eastern DR Congo’s South Kivu province due to heavy rains and flooding, according to local officials.
The flooding occurred after torrential downpours killed dozens in neighbouring Rwanda. Governor of South Kivu, Theo Ngwabije said several people were unaccounted for in Kalehe, west of Lake Kivu and around the Rwandan border, where the devastating floods also washed away hundreds of homes.
“We have around 176 people dead,” he said while visiting the affected area. “This toll is provisional. We also have about 100 people missing.”
The floods submerged several villages in Kalehe when rivers burst their banks after heavy rains. A civil society figure from the region, Innocent Mupenda, said rain started on Thursday afternoon before the “river flooded villages”.
His mother and 11 children were killed in the devastating flood, Mupenda said. An elected official from Kalehe, Vital Muhini, also told a local radio station that the flash floods had caused “devastating human and material damage,” and he put the number of deaths at about 150.
Archimede Karhebwa, the assistant administrator of Kalehe, said the devastating floods carried away hundreds of houses and also “surprised local vendors and their clients in the markets”. Karhebwa said the area had been studied, and people living by the river had been requested to leave.
Deforestation contributes to flood
Climate change and deforestation in the area have contributed to the flash flooding problem, according to Archimede Karhebwa. “We are sending out an SOS to people of goodwill and for urgent humanitarian aid,” he said.
A rescue team member deployed on Friday afternoon, while requesting anonymity, said: “The search is continuing in the rubble”. The government announced on Friday evening that a day of national mourning would be observed on Monday in memory of the lost compatriots.
Central Africa experiences frequent flooding and landslides during the rainy seasons, but experts warn that climate change is causing extreme weather events to occur more frequently and with greater intensity.
Recently, heavy downpours in the region have caused deadly landslides, such as the one that killed around 20 people last month in North Kivu, which borders South Kivu.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, a large country comparable in size to continental Western Europe, is plagued by poverty, corruption, and conflict in its eastern regions.
