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The city, which is the capital of South Kivu province, has been hit by torrential rainfall which has caused landslides that have buried several houses.
Congo: At least 14 people died in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rains battered the city of Bukavu overnight, causing landslides and houses to collapse, according to local report. The victims were all killed in the Bukavu commune of Ibanda, where many people live in makeshift houses that collapsed under the rain, the mayor of the commune, Jean Balek Mugabo, told Reuters via telephone.
Congo is in the midst of political campaigns in the run-up to general elections on Dec. 20 that have highlighted weak infrastructure across Africa’s second-largest country, particularly in conflict-torn eastern provinces such as South Kivu, where Bukavu is located.
In the Ndedere district of the city, the neighbourhood chief Albert Migabo Nyagaza told AFP that “a father, his five children and two grandchildren (were) buried by the earth and their house destroyed”.
He said that the landslide occurred around midnight Sunday.
“We heard a loud noise like thunder,” said local resident Medo Igunzi Munene.
The overcrowded city on the southern shore of Lake Kivu was originally designed for around 100,000 residents by Belgian settlers.
Poverty and poor infrastructure make communities such as those in Ibanda more vulnerable to extreme weather such as heavy rain.
Flash floods killed more than 400 people in a remote, mountainous area of South Kivu in May.
In October the United Nations said a record 6.9 million people had been internally displaced in the DRC, due to a combination of conflict, insecurity and disasters such as floods and landslides.
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