DR Congo Landslide: Death toll increases to 140

The number of lives lost in a landslide that swept over a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo has incr3eased 140, the government disclosed on Monday.

The deputy governor of Ituri Province, Pacifique Keta, told Nigeria News that “We estimate that there at least a hundred bodies buried underneath the rumble of large rocks that fell on the 48 destroyed homes”.

The landslide happened last Wednesday in the northeast village of Tora on the banks of Lake Albert when part of a mountain engulfed a fishing camp after heavy rains,  killing about forty people as disclosed by the government.

Keta said authorities have on suspending the search for bodies to “prioritise the disinfection of the area” — a strategy created to prevent the spreading of possible diseases to nearby fishing villages.

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Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the major occupations in Ituri, which shares boundary with Uganda.

The country has witnessed several similar disaster,  as wellas a mudslide in May 2010 that resulted in 19 deaths, unfortunately, the bodies of 27 others were never recovered.