REPORT

Floods in eastern DRC: food starts running out in Kalehe

Audio 01:26

Devastating floods in Kalehe territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leaving hundreds dead and missing and many injured, an MSF emergency team arrived on 6 May 2023 in Nyamukubi and Bushushu to support the victims and local authorities in the most affected areas. © MSFcongo

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), floods that killed nearly 400 people have devastated not only some villages and homes, but also fields. Others are difficult to access because the stones lowered during the mudslide prevent access.

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With our special envoy in Bushushu, Coralie Pierret

The Nyamukubi market, one of the largest in the region, has also been devastated, impacting villages where food is becoming difficult to find.

In the shopping street of Bushushu, the stalls of cassava flour and charcoal are almost empty. In front of her phone shop, Rurahi also sells some vegetables and embers, but in recent days she has not been able to stock up.

Without income, it is impossible to buy food for his family: "We eat hard because it is difficult to find food. Prices have gone up. A bunch of tomatoes that we used to buy for 200 francs, today we buy it for 1,000 francs."

A few meters away, several international organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) or MONUSCO distribute some food, too few for the inhabitants who, for the most part, do not have enough to eat since the disaster.

The floods have ravaged fields, explains Archimède Karhebwa, deputy administrator of Kalehe territory: "Several hectares have been washed away. The fields were ravaged. People who live from field work can no longer farm because there is mud everywhere. There are also stones that come from the mountains all over the fields of Kalehe. »

It is difficult, for the moment, to make a precise assessment, but the destruction of the market of Nyamukubi, one of the largest in the region and the national road, risks permanently disrupting local economic life.

► Read also: Floods in eastern DRC: in Kalehe, survivors are still looking for their missing relatives

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Read on on the same topics:

• DRC
• Natural disasters