2023-12-11 14:13:12
Published11. December 2023, 3:13 p.m.
Democratic Republic of Congo: At least fifteen dead in landslides in Bukavu
In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, heavy rains caused numerous landslides. The large city of South Kivu is in mourning.
After the heavy rains which caused landslides and buried several houses, the initial death toll was fifteen.
photo d’illustration AFP
At least fifteen people died overnight from Sunday to Monday in landslides in two neighborhoods of Bukavu, a large city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the capital of South Kivu, where President Félix Tshisekedi held a campaign meeting last Friday, ahead of the presidential election scheduled for December 20, heavy rains caused landslides and buried several houses.
A father, his children and his “sunken” grandchildren
In the Ndendere district, “a father, his five children and two grandchildren” were “engulfed by the earth and their house destroyed”, following a landslide “around midnight”, declared Albert Migabo Nyagaza, the head of the district.
“I saw the wall of a house collapse onto another below, where eight people were sleeping.”
Medo Igunzi Munene, riverain
“We heard a loud noise, like thunder,” says Medo Igunzi Munene, a local resident and witness to the tragedy. He adds that he saw “the wall of a house collapse onto another below, where eight people were sleeping”. They were then “swallowed by the earth”.
In the neighboring district of Panzi, made famous by the presence of the hospital of Nobel Prize winner and gynecologist Denis Mukwege, at least seven people died in similar circumstances.
Ban construction in “risk locations”
The president of the civil society of the Panzi district called on “the mayor of the city, the mayors and the heads of neighborhoods to take measures to enforce the texts prohibiting construction” in places “already listed” as being at risk.
In the popular neighborhoods of Bukavu, landslides, collapses and spectacular fires have caused the deaths of several dozen people since the start of the year.
Founded at the very beginning of the 20th century, on the south shore of Lake Kivu, by Belgian settlers, Bukavu, formerly Costermansville, was designed for around 100,000 inhabitants. Today there are around two million, a figure difficult to confirm due to lack of a census.
(AFP)
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