At least 10 people died and some 20 went missing on Saturday night in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) due to heavy rains in the region, according to local authorities.
“Fields and houses were flooded by the flooding of the Aowa river,” said the president of civil society in the Fizi territory, Kitandala Santos, in statements quoted by Efe.
“There are several artisanal miners who died in a well due to heavy rains. We picked up their bodies,” the official added.
The floods and the collapse of the artisanal mine occurred in the town of Nyangi, belonging to the territory of Fizi, in the province of South Kivu.
“Several houses were destroyed and three children were injured by the collapse of one of them. Furthermore, a pregnant woman miscarried after a wall fell on her,” reported local civil society organization Acción Social para el Desarrollo Comunitario.
Kitandala Santos called on the authorities to create mechanisms to protect artisanal miners, who are more vulnerable to landslides, phenomena that caused the death of many people in the mines of that region.
Source: TSF
