Bunia, July 10th, 2025 (CPA).- Five dead and several injured is the provisional toll from torrential rains in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of a state technical service told the CPA on Thursday. »The fence wall of the MG sarlu company built on Lusambo Avenue opposite Samaritan’s Purse collapsed onto a house at around 10 p.m., causing several human and material damages. We count two dead and several injured in the rain that has been falling since nightfall until now. Three young boys, two of whom were displaced and another from the Kolomani neighborhood, were returning from the city center when they were swept away by the waters of the stream between the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique (ISP) Bunia and the Lycée Kigonze displacement site, which overflowed following Wednesday’s rains, » said Robert Ndjalonga, provincial coordinator of the civil protection service in Ituri. Robert Ndjalonga said that two bodies had already been found during this morning’s search and that the search for the third body was continuing. He explained that the children who were swept away had tried to cross the stream, which was already overflowing due to heavy rains in Bunia over the past two days.
‘Be careful when crossing rivers or streams that are overflowing, especially if there is no footbridge or bridge, as you risk being swept away by the current,’ he advised. In addition, Robert Ndjalonga said that the 55 km Bunia-Kasenyi road is closed to traffic. « Following the rains that have been falling since yesterday, Wednesday to Thursday, on the Blue Mountains mountain range, the Bunia-Kasenyi road has been closed to traffic since Thursday morning (…) in the coastal plain due to flooding caused by the overflowing of the Kisege River. No passage, even by motorbike, is possible. So far, no incidents have been reported, » he added. Robert Ndjalonga said that this situation ‘could affect traffic in general and the travel or navigation program on Lake Albert for today, as many travellers often come from Bunia to Uganda in particular’.