Congo flood survivors mourn lost relatives

Bodies were still being recovered on Monday from two villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where floods killed more than 400 people last week in one of the country's deadliest disasters in recent history.

Many dazed survivors were mourning multiple family members killed in the flash floods that swept away entire homes and buried the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi, both in South Kivu Province, in muck and debris.

"Over there in the mud, that's where our house was. We lost six people in our family. In our house, five children died and our mother who is the sixth," said 22-year-old Alliance Mufanzara, pointing at an empty plot of churned earth.

She, her younger brother and her father were the only survivors.

"We're scared because our whole family is finished," she said. "We have nothing."

Humanitarian workers have spent days recovering mud-caked bodies from the wrecked villages in Kalehe territory, where days of torrential rain triggered landslides and caused rivers to overflow their banks on Thursday.

"It is an unprecedented humanitarian disaster," said government spokesman Patrick Muyaya.

The large number of casualties has meant that workers have had to bury victims in freshly dug mass graves, according to videos posted online, which Reuters was not immediately able to verify.

"We left everything behind," said Bushushu resident Bahati Kabanga, 32, who managed to rescue his only child but lost his aunt, nephews and a sister.

"We felt a tremor while it was raining and decided to flee after seeing houses collapse in the distance," he told Reuters by telephone.

Just over 400 people were confirmed dead, South Kivu Governor Theo Ngwabidje Kasi said earlier on Monday, more than doubling the toll since Friday.

Civil society sources on the ground expect the toll to rise further, as bodies were still floating in rivers and buried under wreckage. Hundreds of people remained unaccounted for, according to the United Nations.

The Congolese Red Cross said that 274 people had been buried so far, including 98 women and 82 children.

Over 8,800 others have been affected by the floods, which swept away homes and schools and cut off roads, it said. Destroyed sewage systems and bodies lying in debris are raising concerns about sanitation, it said.

Families have been separated and traumatized survivors are taking refuge in other people's homes, the Red Cross added.

"If I hadn't gone to the market maybe I could have saved my children," said mother of five Jolie Ambika Nathalie, 34, in Bushushu.

The central government has sent a delegation to Bushushu and declared Monday a day of national mourning.

Warming temperatures due to climate change are increasing the intensity and frequency of Africa's rains, according to UN climate experts.

Agencies via Xinhua