Over 100 killed in Congo flooding

Kinshasa [Democratic Republic of the Congo], May 6 (ANI/WAM): More than 100 people were killed in flooding and landslides brought on by torrential overnight rains in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province, a local official said Friday.

Thomas Bakenge, a regional government official, gave the estimate after overseeing recovery efforts in the affected territory of Kalehe, calling the scale of destruction “enormous, beyond words, whole houses were carried away.” He said bodies were still being collected from the shores of the nearby Lake Kivu.

Two rivers broke their banks after the heavy rains which began on Thursday evening and there have been multiple landslides with scores of homes destroyed, according to Delphin Birimbi, a community leader in the region.

As bodies were pulled from the mud, some residents estimated that more than 75 per cent of homes in the village of Nyamukubi have been carried away by the floods, along with school buildings and a health centre.