Flooding Kills Scores in Congo

The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen to 176, with some 100 people still missing, according to a provisional assessment given by the governor and authorities in the country's South Kivu province. Rivers broke their banks in villages in the territory of Kalehe close to the shores of Lake Kivu on Thursday. Authorities also reported scores of people injured. South Kivu Gov. Théo Ngwabidje visited the area to see the destruction and posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had dispatched medical, shelter, and food supplies. Several main roads to the affected area have been been made impassable by the rains, the AP reports, hampering the relief efforts.

A civil society member in South Kivu, Kasole Martin, said 227 bodies had been found, per the Guardian. "People are sleeping out in the open, schools and hospitals have been swept away," Martin said. Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has declared a national day of mourning on Monday to honor the victims, and the central government is sending a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government. Heavy rains in recent days have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall, per the AP. Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week. (More Democratic Republic of Congo stories.)