Landslide kills 40 in northeast DR Congo

Bystanders look on as floodwaters rage past a damaged building in an area of Freetown on August 14, 2017. Two days after the devastating landslides in Sierra Leone, DR Congo was on August 16 hit by deadly landslides resulting in 40 deaths in the village of Tora following heavy rainfall. PHOTO | SAIDU BAH | AFP

What you need to know:

  • A fisherman's camp was engulfed by part of a mountain after heavy rains caused a landslide.

  • A doctor at the nearby Tshomia Hospital, Herve Isamba, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide.

  • Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the main occupations in Ituri, which borders Uganda.

BUNIA

A landslide has swept over a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 40 people, a regional official said Thursday.

Part of a mountain engulfed "a fisherman's camp after heavy rains caused a landslide" the deputy governor of Ituri Province, Pacifique Keta, told AFP.

He said 40 people were killed in the disaster in the village of Tora on the banks of Lake Albert on August 16.

It follows devastating floods in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown on August 14 that killed some 300 people.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), we buried 28 bodies and today we will bury 12 more," Mr Keta said.

Herve Isamba, a doctor at the nearby Tshomia Hospital, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide.

Mr Keta said that two people were also killed Wednesday when an illegal mine flooded in the nearby Wallendas Piti area.

DISASTERS

The vast country has experienced a number of such disasters in the past.

In May 2010, a mudslide that swept over the eastern village of Kibiriga killed 19 people while bodies of 27 others were never recovered.

In February 2002, about 50 people died after a wave of mud and rocks hit the eastern town of Uvira, submerging about 150 homes.

Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the main occupations in Ituri, which borders Uganda.

The province, rich in gold deposits, saw several outbreaks of violence during the Second Congo War between 1998 and 2003.

The war ended with the aid of a French-led international military intervention.