Most victims are handcrafted minors on the site of an artisanal gold exploitation, in the town of Rubaya, near Goma.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
At least twenty people have died in the past two days in landslides and floods caused by heavy rains in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), announced administrative and police sources, Saturday, November 19.
Most of the deaths – at least thirteen – have so far been recorded on Friday in an artisanal gold operating site, in Rubaya, in the territory of Masisi (North Kivu). “The victims are” Creuseurs “who were in wells and people who were around,” said France Presse Jean-Paul Barindikije, secretary of an association of craft minors. “Several other people are still buried under the ground, research continues,” he added.
Saturday, the rain caused house landslides in the center of Rubaya. The police evoke a balance sheet of five dead. According to a resident, a mother and her four children were carried away. In the locality of Bihambwe, about 5 km from Rubaya, “three people from the same family were swept away by river waters,” said Kambale Muhindo, police commander.