Nothing remains of Niampaka Kahundahunda's cassava, bean and sweet potato plants. The parcel, like much of the village of Bushushu, located on the western shore of Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was devastated by flooding. On Thursday May 4, the 48-year-old farmer was having a drink at a restaurant with some friends when torrents of mud washed away. According to the authorities, 438 people have been buried - a still provisional figure - and several thousand people are still missing.
Like Niampaka Kahundahunda, more than 100,000 survivors have fled the affected towns, according to a report by OCHA, the UN office for humanitarian affairs, released the day after the natural disaster. The twisted-bodied family man first retreated to the mountains, near his land. โThere were still rock slides there, so I tried to run away to a safer placeโhe says, his eyes darkening.
Also read: โWe keep finding bodies buried in the mudโ: in the eastern DRC, the number of victims of floods increases
Six days after the disaster, he finally found shelter with his wife's mother, in Ihusi in Kalehe territory, with his wife and their son, the only survivor of a family of eight children. The farmer's in-laws also live off the land, but the harvest is barely enough to feed three more mouths. โOur biggest difficulty right now is hungerโregrets
"Right now it is difficult to take stock of the number of hectares devastatedsays Archimรจde Karhebwa, deputy administrator of the territory. But what is certain is that we will not be able to farm there any time soon. Sand and stones alter the fertility of the soilโ. A warehouse for seeds stored for future harvests was also destroyed by the floods.
prices have skyrocketed
Nothing stopped the three streams of rain, rocks and pebbles that washed away houses and crops in Kalehe province. The forests that once covered the mountain slopes of the valleys on the shores of Lake Kivu have disappeared. In this densely populated agro-pastoral region, the pressure on the soil is strong. โDue to the needs of agriculture or livestock, the area has been deforested without reforesting. Even when seedlings are distributed for free, they are rarely replanted."deplores Chance Muhindo Kafunga, local coordinator for the Congolese NGO Environment Without Borders.
In Bushushu, some tomatoes or bunches of cassava flour are still sold at market stalls. But prices for basic necessities have skyrocketed: around a 30% increase, according to a report by the local branch of Cรกritas, a confederation of NGOs linked to the Catholic Church.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers In DRC villages devastated by landslides: "We are ruined, abandoned, without any help"
โThere is almost no coal left [indispensable ร la cuisine dans la rรฉgion]. The only remaining bags sell for $30. [quelque 27ย euros] instead of 15 or 20 dollarsโ, laments a seller who did not give her name in front of an almost empty fish stall. Local authorities have temporarily banned fishing while rescuers retrieve bodies from the lake.
A few kilometers away, the market of Nyamukubi, another town affected by the floods, was completely submerged. โHowever, it was the second most important in the territory, says Archimedes Karhebwa. People came from all over to buy or sell their wares. ยป
Damaged drinking fountains
Simon Lwahissa, who worked there, was unable to save his stock. Standing in front of what's left of his house, a pile of chopped wood, he doesn't have the strength to go to the port of Nyamukubi, where a wealthy businessman has sent food for the survivors. The merchant, however, has no food or drink as drinking fountains were damaged in the disaster. Assistance from the government, private donors or NGOs, which in some places has sparked fights and crowd movements, is trickling in.
โI am just waiting for the authorities to find solutions for us. All our infrastructures have been lost: the school, the health center, the church. We don't even have electricity since the micro hydroelectric dams were destroyed."says Simon Lwahissa. The resumption of its commercial activity is not on the agenda, especially since the national highway 2, which connects Bukavu and Goma, the two main cities in the east of the DRC, has been cut. Even on a motorbike, the passage is impossible in some places since the rocks, brought by the torrential rains, obstruct the path.
Kalehe was however one of the granaries of the region. The area, which yesterday supplied part of the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces with garden products and charcoal, is now isolated and difficult to supply. The rains demolished the Luzira bridge, the only road linking the territory with the rest of the South Kivu province.
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In front of the dilapidated gangway, the handlers unload their goods. Some take the rickety wooden pontoon hastily rebuilt by the locals. Others go straight down the river, with boxes on their heads. Opposite, another truck, one of the few in the area, waits to supply the affected area.
