Families and rescuers were searching Monday for unknown numbers of people missing four days after floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 400 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The latest death toll from the administrator of Kalehe territory in South Kivu province where villages have been destroyed lists about 400 people, including bodies found in Lake Kivu.
According to the UN humanitarian affairs bureau OCHA some 3,000 families are still without shelter and the number of people missing remains unclear.
“I have lost 12 relatives, I’ve buried five bodies so far and seven others cannot be found,” Alpha Safari told AFP at Bushushu village.
“I am looking for them, I hope to find the bodies to bury them with dignity,” he said
A wall of mud that fell down the mountainside on Thursday evening covers part of the village where homes and people were swept away, some into the nearby lake.
Youngsters dig into the earth. One covers his face. Another dead body has been found.
“The search continues because there are a great deal of bodies under the devastation,” a Red Cross worker said, asking not to be named.
“Every time we manage to demolish a house, we find bodies,” he added, deploring the lack of proper equipment to carry out the work.
– ‘No help’ –
“There were seven children in the family, but I’m the only one left,” said Darcein Bikanaba, another survivor at Bushushu.
“My father and my mother have also gone and all my little brothers.
“We have had no help up to now… We can’t stay here, it’s very dangerous.”
OCHA has detailed “immediate needs” including for “dignified and safe” burials as well as medical care, food aid and shelter.
Emergency teams from the UN and national NGOs have been brought in, OCHA said.
Greenpeace Africa noted that such disasters show “the necessity for the authorities to work on a national development plan focusing strongly on the risk of flooding in certain areas of the country”.
Experts say extreme weather events are happening with increased frequency and intensity due to climate change.
Eastern DR Congo’s disaster came two days after floods killed at least 131 people and destroyed thousands of homes in neighbouring Rwanda, on the other side of Lake Kivu.
DR Congo, a vast nation the size of continental western Europe, is one of the poorest countries in the world, riddled by corruption and conflict in its east.
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on a visit to Burundi noted: “This is yet another illustration of accelerating climate change and its disastrous impact on countries that have done nothing to contribute to global warming,” he said during a visit to Burundi.
