The toll from floods and landslides within the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has risen to 203 folks dead as more our bodies are recovered, an administrative authentic stated Saturday.
The provisional demise toll, introduced overdue on Friday through the provincial governor, used to be no less than 176 dead.
“Here in Bushushu, 203 bodies have already been removed from the rubble,” stated Thomas Bakenga, administrator of Kalehe territory, the place the affected villages are positioned.
It used to be now not imaginable to guage the total extent of the human losses and subject matter harm, he instructed native media.
Heavy rainfall within the Kalehe area of South Kivu province on Thursday led to rivers to overflow, inflicting landslides that engulfed the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi.
The hillside additionally gave method at Nyamukubi, the place the weekly marketplace used to be hung on Thursday, Bakenga added.
In all, a number of villages have been submerged, many homes washed away and fields devastated when rivers within the area burst their banks because of the heavy rains.
Congolese physician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, whose hospital is positioned in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, stated Saturday he had despatched a crew of surgeons, anesthetists and technicians to the realm to “provide the population with emergency medical aid.”
The crisis got here two days after floods killed no less than 131 folks and destroyed hundreds of houses in neighboring Rwanda.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday presented his condolences to the sufferers of the “catastrophic floods” in Rwanda and DR Congo.
“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 stated all over a discuss with to Burundi.
Experts say excessive climate occasions are taking place with larger frequency and depth because of local weather exchange.