After the severe flooding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, survivors are desperately looking for relatives. The floods are hitting a region where people have already been through a lot.
Residents and aid workers search for victims in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Heavy rains have washed away entire houses and triggered landslides. Rivers burst their banks. One survivor says he has only found one of his seven children so far. He has lost hope that the others survived.
“That’s why we’ve been trying since morning to find their bodies so that we can bury them,” says the father. “So far we’ve only dug up the neighbor who died with her three children in her arms.”
Everything is missing
Almost everything has also been destroyed in the neighboring villages. The health centers in the region are overcrowded. The doctors, like here in a small clinic in South Kivu, lack the means to help everyone. There is not enough medicine and not enough gloves, syringes and bandages. “We need support and emergency supplies in this disaster,” says one man.
The floods are hitting a region where people have already been through a lot. The east of the Congo is largely controlled by militias, who repeatedly attack, murder and plunder villages. Many have lost everything here several times and live in refugee camps.
Congo’s president declares national mourning
It is therefore difficult for the authorities to estimate the number of victims, says the head of administration in one district, Thomas Bakenge: “We don’t know how to identify the people. Some have fled. It will therefore take some time , until we have the exact number of dead.”
Congo’s President Félix Thisekedi has declared national mourning for today. Ministers are to travel to the region to coordinate aid and disaster management.
consequence of climate change
Flooding during the rainy season is not uncommon in the South Kivu region. But this time the rains are particularly heavy. In the past few days, people have also died from flooding in the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Uganda.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the floods again showed the effects of climate change. Countries that have done nothing to contribute to global warming are often particularly affected.