World News | Congo floods kill more than 200, many more missing

KALEH (Congo) May 7 (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has surpassed 200, with many more missing, local authorities in South Kivu province said.

Thomas Baconge, the administrator of the hardest-hit region of Kaleh, told reporters at the scene on Saturday that 203 bodies had been recovered but the search for others was continuing.

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In the village of Nyamukubi, where hundreds of houses washed away, rescuers and survivors dug through the rubble Saturday, looking for more bodies in the mud.

Villagers wept as they gathered around some of the bodies so far found, which lay covered in muddy cloth in grass near the rescuers’ post.

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Grieving survivor Anuarite Zikujuwa said she lost her entire family, including her in-laws, as well as many of her neighbours. “The whole village has been turned into a wasteland with nothing but stones left, and we don’t even know where our land used to be,” she said.

Michake Ntamana, a rescue worker who helped find and bury the dead, said villagers were trying to identify and collect the bodies of relatives recovered so far. He said some of the bodies washed down from hillside villages were buried in leaves. “It’s really sad because we have nothing here,” he said.

In villages in the Kalehe region, near the shore of Lake Kivu, a river burst its banks on Thursday. Authorities reported dozens of injuries. One survivor told The Associated Press that the flash floods came so quickly that they caught everyone off guard.

South Kivu Governor Théo Ngwabidje witnessed the devastation in the area first-hand. He posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had sent medical, shelter and food supplies.

Several major roads leading to the affected areas were impassable due to the rain, hampering rescue efforts.

President Felix Tshisekedi has declared Monday a national day of mourning to honor the victims, and the central government is sending a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government.

Days of heavy rain have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with heavy rainfall also hitting parts of Uganda and Kenya.

Earlier this week, 129 people were killed in floods and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo.

“This is the fourth time the same river has caused such damage. There hasn’t been a decade without them causing massive damage,” local government official Bakenge told The Associated Press. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)