The rainfall in Kalehe territory in South Kivu province prompted rivers to overflow on Thursday, inundating the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi.

South Kivu governor Théo Ngwabidje Kasi put the demise toll at 176 and stated that others have been nonetheless lacking. A neighborhood civil society member, Kasole Martin, stated 227 our bodies had been discovered.

“People are sleeping out in the open, schools and hospitals have been swept away,” Martin stated.

On Friday, haggard-looking survivors stood outdoors a wood shed during which Red Cross staff in blue scrubs positioned our bodies on high of one another. Many had misplaced clothes and have been lined in grime. A Reuters reporter counted 72 corpses.

The corrugated iron roofs of flattened homes jutted out from beneath thick layers of mud, photographs confirmed.

A physician in Kalehe territory’s foremost hospital, Robert Masamba, stated injured survivors had been streaming in since Thursday night.

“My team and I have not slept. We have received 56 patients, 80pc of which have fractures,” he stated.

Floods and landslides aren’t unusual in South Kivu, which shares a border with Rwanda. Heavy rains additionally triggered flooding and landslides in Rwanda this week, killing 130 individuals and destroying greater than 5,000 houses.

The final incident of the same scale in Congo occurred in October 2014, when heavy rainfall destroyed over 700 houses. More than 130 individuals have been reported lacking on the time, based on the United Nations.