In Congo, a rain disaster destroys the livelihoods of hundreds of people

The rainy season started last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Flooding and landslides caused by the heavy rainfall have claimed at least 400 lives. At least 3,000 families are homeless.

The deadliest are in South Kivu province, where villages were destroyed and bodies were found in Lake Kivu, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya confirmed. He also said that the search for the countless missing persons is ongoing.

Alpha Safari tells AFP:

Apha lives in Bushushu village, where a mudslide wiped out part of the village on Thursday evening, washing houses and people into the nearby lake. Since then he has collected from the ruins of the village pieces that can still be used to build a temporary shelter.

“Cleaning operations are progressing slowly because there are so many bodies under the devastation,” a Red Cross worker told AFP. At the same time, there is hardly any suitable material to evacuate the destroyed houses and search for the corpses.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said it is important to recover the dead in order to “bury them with dignity”. In addition, medical care, food aid and shelter should be made available.

Climate change promotes extreme weather events

Experts have been warning for some time that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more intensive due to climate change – also and especially in the already poorest countries on the African continent.

While visiting Burundi on Saturday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarked:

The disaster in eastern DRC came two days after flooding in neighboring Rwanda across Lake Kivu killed at least 131 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Greenpeace Africa noted that such disasters “show that authorities need to work on a national development plan that focuses heavily on flood risks in specific parts of the country.” In addition, climate change must finally be tackled in a targeted manner.

The Horn of Africa has been ravaged for years by a relentless drought – the worst in decades – causing crop failure and starvation. Experts also attribute this to human-induced climate change.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is not among the countries hardest hit by this drought – Congo is considered the green heart of Africa. However, the country has been ravaged for years by conflicts that have forced millions of people to flee within the country – leaving them unable to work the fields. According to UNICEF, by December 2022, 1.3 million children under the age of five in the DRC are severely malnourished and require special nutrition to survive.

The effects of climate change are exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. After all, 90 percent of the wheat imported into East Africa has so far come from Russia or Ukraine.

(yum)