Guatemala: mudslides kill at least 15 after heavy rains

The rainy season, which runs from May to November, kills hundreds of people every year in Central America, one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change (Illustration image).

AP - Esteban Biba

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

At least fifteen people died and seven others were injured in a dozen mudslides.

The heavy rains falling on the small Central American country now affect more than half a million inhabitants.

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Since the beginning of May, rains accompanied by strong winds have caused landslides, floods, infrastructure collapses and destruction in the Central American country.

While the floods and landslides affect the entire national territory, it is the indigenous villages that are the most affected: this is where a mother and her six children were buried by a mudslide.

It was there again that three minor brothers drowned. 

The Coordination for the reduction of natural disasters (Conred) specifies that so far, nearly 1,000 homes have been damaged as well as eight schools.

80 roads have become impassable, several bridges have been washed away.

This destruction is affecting areas where infrastructure is already scarce and aggravated isolation of these territories will make the daily lives of their inhabitants even more difficult: six out of ten Guatemalans live below the poverty line. 

To make matters worse, rainfall is expected to intensify by the end of June.

Authorities have placed 78 municipalities on high alert.

In 2021, the rains had caused the death of 35 people and left three missing, seventeen injured and affected nearly 1.5 million people.

Nearly 12,000 people had to be evacuated.

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(With AFP)

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• Guatemala

• Severe weather