The death toll from flash floods and landslides in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen beyond 200, with many more people still missing, according to local authorities in the province of South Kivu.

Thomas Bakenge, administrator of Kalehe, the worst-hit territory, told reporters on the scene Saturday that 203 bodies had been recovered so far, but that efforts to find others were continuing.

In the village of Nyamukubi, where hundreds of homes were washed away, rescue workers and survivors dug through the ruins Saturday looking for more bodies in the mud. Villagers wept as they gathered around some of the bodies recovered so far, which lay on the grass covered in muddy cloths near a rescue workers post.

Grieving survivor Anuarite Zikujuwa said she had lost her entire family, including her in-laws, as well as many of her neighbours. 

"The whole village has been turned into a wasteland. There's only stones left, and we can't even tell where our land once was," she said.

Michake Ntamana, a rescue worker helping look for and bury the dead, said villagers were trying to identify and collect the bodies of loved ones found so far. He said some bodies washed down from villages higher in the hills were being buried shrouded just in leaves off the trees.

"It's truly sad because we have nothing else here," he said.

Rivers broke their banks in villages in the territory of Kalehe, close to the shores of Lake Kivu on Thursday. Authorities have reported scores of people injured. One survivor told AP the flash floods took everyone by surprise.

South Kivu Gov. Théo Ngwabidje visited the area to see the destruction for himself. He posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had dispatched medical, shelter and food supplies. Several main roads to the affected area have been made impassable by the rains, hampering the relief efforts.

President Felix Tshisekedi has declared a national day of mourning on Monday to honour the victims, and the central government is sending a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government.

Heavy rains in recent days have brought misery to thousands in East Africa, with parts of Uganda and Kenya also seeing heavy rainfall. Flooding and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, left 129 people dead earlier this week.

Local government official Bakenge told AP, "This is the fourth time that such damage has been caused by the same rivers. Not 10 years pass without them causing enormous damage." Written by VOA, The Observer

Self-styled vlogger, Ibrahim Tusibira aka Isma Olaxes aka Jajja Ichuli has been shot dead near his home in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb, a few days after he celebrated the death of former state minister for Labour, Charles Engola.

Engola was shot dead on Tuesday morning by his own bodyguard Private Wilson Sabiti inside his home also in Kyanja before also shooting himself following disagreements over unpaid salary and allowances. Ichuli would afterwards accuse government officials of treating their lower-ranked staff as trash, saying even more will be killed.

Ichuli's shooting is reminiscent of the previous killings of former Buyende district police commander Muhammad Kirumira, former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi and former MP Ibrahim Abiriga who were attacked from all sides, and their vehicles showered with bullets.

Ichuli has been an outspoken critic and he had made a career out of attacking the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party and its president Robert Kyagulanyi.

In fact, following the November 2020 riots in which as per government's own admission over 56 were shot dead, Ichuli said security ought to have killed more opposition supporters so as to show Kyagulanyi and his supporters how the state is in charge. He would, later on, apologise for the reckless statements, saying he made them at the peak of presidential election campaigns when emotions were very.

It is not only opposition supporters who tasted his bitter tongue, he previously attacked prime minister Robinah Nabbanja, speaker Anita Among, and businessman Hamis Kiggundu among others though by the time of his death he'd made up with them and would publicly admit to now working for them.

This week, he again vented out his frustration with the government, saying they had 'used' him during a volatile campaign and had now abandoned and dumped him. He'd vowed not to campaign for the ruling party ever again come 2026, saying they often forget about their foot soldiers as soon they regain power.

According to earlier interviews that he conducted, he lived in Sweden before he got deported to Uganda. He set up a painting company but has always been complaining about the lack of contracts. - URN/The Observer