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.