At least 21 killed, several missing in eastern DR Congo landslide

At least 21 people have died and several others are missing a day after a landslide in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The bodies of eight women and 13 children were discovered after the landslide hit a river in the locality of Bolowa on Sunday as people were washing clothes and cleaning kitchenware, said Voltaire Batundi, a civil society leader in the wider Masisi territory.

One person survived and has been taken to a health centre, he added.

“We think that maybe in the mud there are still other bodies,” he told Reuters news agency by phone.

Search efforts have continued on Monday, a spokesperson for the governor of North Kivu province, which includes Masisi, said.

Fabrice Muphirwa Kubuya, head of the Osso-Banyungu civil society group, said that “the landslide occurred at around midday in the village of Bulwa”, putting the provisional death toll at 30, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

He added that the mudslide may have been triggered by days of heavy rainfall.