Kasaba: Raging floods rushing through a village during the night killed more than 100 people, many of them children as they slept, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, local officials said Saturday. The disaster unfolded as torrential rains led to the sudden overflow of the Kasaba river, which devastated the Kasaba village in the Sud Kivu province.
According to Nam News Network, the floods were triggered by intense rainfalls that caused the Kasaba river to burst its banks overnight. The surging waters carried everything in their path, including large stones, trees, and mud, before destroying houses situated on the edge of Lake Tanganyika. Bernard Akili, a regional official, reported the catastrophe and highlighted the village’s isolation, noting that it is only accessible by the lake and lacks internet service.
Natural disasters such as this are not uncommon in the DRC, particularly along the shores of the great lakes in the eastern part of the country. The surrounding hills have been weaken
ed by deforestation, increasing the vulnerability of these areas to floods. In a similar incident earlier in 2023, floods resulted in the deaths of 400 people in several communities along the shores of Lake Kivu, also located in the South Kivu province.