Kinshasa, May 11th, 2025 (CPA) – A provisional death toll of 62 as a result of flooding in Kasaba, a locality in the Fizi territory (South Kivu) on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was established on Saturday in a press release issued by the provincial government of this entity temporarily based in Uvira. ‘Torrential rain (…) fell in the Ngandja sector, causing the Kasaba River to overflow its banks. This caused extensive flooding, resulting in loss of life and considerable material damage, with the following provisional toll: 62 confirmed deaths (…), 150 houses destroyed or washed away, 30 people injured, (…) people left homeless and exposed to the elements’, wrote Didier Lunganywa, minister and spokesman for the government, which operates far from the capital Bukavu, occupied by Rwandan troops and their M23-AFC auxiliaries. The South Kivu provincial executive also deplored in the document ‘the many compulsory fields that have been ravaged and the significant loss of material goods’.
While urging the health services to ‘prepare for a possible health crisis’, it called on international organizations to mobilize for urgent intervention.
Flooding in the town of Uvira
In May 2024, the rising waters of Lake Tanganyika, which is shared with Burundi and Tanzania, caused the Mulongwe, Kalimabenge and Kavinvira rivers to overflow their banks in the same area, while spreading into the neighboring province of Tanganyika, particularly in the territories of Moba, Manono, Kongolo and the town of Kalemie. In July of the same year, floodwaters from this lake completely engulfed the road linking the town of Uvira to Salamabila, in Maniema province, according to local sources, who also reported the death of a lorry driver. CPA/