Greater than 170 individuals have died after heavy rains and flooding in japanese DR Congo’s South Kivu province, officers stated Friday, after torrential downpours killed dozens in neighbouring Rwanda.

Learn right here: Atleast 130 killed as heavy rainfall triggers devastating floods in Rwanda

South Kivu governor Theo Ngwabije stated dozens of individuals have been unaccounted for within the Kalehe area, west of Lake Kivu and close to the Rwandan border, the place the floods additionally washed away a whole bunch of houses.

“Now we have about 176 individuals useless,” he stated whereas visiting the affected space.

“This toll is provisional,” he stated. “We even have about 100 individuals lacking.”

Archimede Karhebwa, the assistant administrator of Kalehe, had earlier instructed AFP that about 100 individuals had died, in keeping with a provisional toll.

A number of villages in Kalehe have been submerged when rivers burst their banks after heavy rains, he stated.

Karhebwa stated the floods carried away a whole bunch of homes and likewise “stunned distributors and their purchasers within the markets”.

Harmless Mupenda, a civil society determine from the area, stated a downpour began on Thursday afternoon, earlier than the “river carried away villagers”.

His mom and 11 kids died within the flood, Mupenda stated.

Very important Muhini, an elected official from Kalehe, additionally instructed an area radio station that the floods had been “devastating human and materials injury”. He put the variety of deaths at round 150.

AFP was unable to independently affirm the demise toll, with reported figures various.

A member of a rescue workforce deployed on Friday afternoon, who declined to be named, stated “the search is continuous within the rubble”.

Japanese Congo’s lethal flooding follows the demise of not less than 127 individuals this week after downpours in neighbouring Rwanda, which lies on the opposite aspect of Lake Kivu.

‘Sending out an SOS’

Karhebwa, Kalehe’s assistant administrator, stated that the rivers have burst their banks and triggered disastrous flooding on 4 earlier events.

The world had been studied and other people dwelling by the river requested to go away, he defined.

Deforestation within the space and local weather change have contributed to the flooding drawback, in keeping with Karhebwa.

“We’re sending out an SOS to individuals of fine will and for pressing humanitarian support,” he stated.

Heavy downpours throughout wet seasons in central Africa recurrently result in flooding and landslides.

However consultants say excessive climate occasions in Africa are taking place with elevated frequency and depth attributable to local weather change.

Learn right here: Heavy rainfall, floods and thunderstorms have been the most important excessive climate occasions in 2022: Report

Final month, a landslide provoked by torrential downpours killed round 20 individuals in North Kivu, a province that neighbours South Kivu.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, an enormous nation the scale of continental western Europe, is likely one of the poorest nations on this planet, riddled by corruption and battle in its east.