BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AFP) - A landslide in a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the north-east Democratic Republic of Congo, has killed 40 people, a regional official said on Thursday (Aug 17). Pacifique Keta, deputy governor of Ituri province, told AFP news agency on Thursday that part of a mountain engulfed "a fisherman's camp after heavy rains caused a landslide". He added that 40 people were killed in the disaster in the village of Tora, on the banks of Lake Albert on Wednesday. The news comes on the heels of devastating floods in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown on Monday that killed some 300 people. A doctor at the nearby Tshomia hospital, Dr Herve Isamba, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide. In May 2010, a mudslide that swept over the eastern village of Kibiriga killed 19 people: the bodies of 27 others were never recovered. Jean-Bosco Lalu, who leads civil society groups in the nearby regional hub of Bunia, says 30 bodies have been recovered and the toll is expected to rise as recovery efforts continue. In February 2002, about 50 people were found dead after a wave of mud and rocks hit the eastern town of Uvira, submerging about 150 homes. Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the main occupations in Ituri, which borders Uganda.
A landslide in a village along Lake Albert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo leaves at least 60 dead.