Floods and landslides wreak havoc in Rwanda’s northern and western provinces

The torrential rains that pounded northern and western Rwanda in recent days have left a trail of destruction and death, with at least 115 people killed and many more at risk. According to the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency, the disaster is one of the highest death tolls in the country’s recent history, and the worst is yet to come.

The agency warned that the floodwaters are still rising, posing a threat to even more lives. The western province, which borders Lake Kivu, was hardest hit, with entire homes swept away and infrastructure destroyed. Roads were cut off by landslides, and fields were submerged in water.

Jane Munyemana, a resident of the town of Rubavu in the western province, narrowly escaped the disaster with her children. “We were at home with our children, but we managed to escape before it collapsed,” she said. However, she and her family are now forced to seek shelter elsewhere, worried that further rain could destroy whatever is left.

Rwanda’s minister in charge of emergency management, Marie-Solange Kayisire, said that relief efforts began immediately, including providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed and helping to bury the victims of the disaster. She urged residents in affected areas to increase patrols, especially at night, to move people to safer ground when the rain becomes heavy.

In neighboring Uganda, six people died when landslides struck their homes after days of torrential rain. The local Red Cross said that five of the dead belonged to a single family from a small village. The agency shared images of local farmers perched on steeply terraced hillsides and digging through the fresh mudslide, and homes buried up to their rooftops in mud.

East Africa is prone to flooding and landslides during the rainy seasons, although several countries in the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in decades. Experts say that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate breakdown, and Africa, which contributes the least to global heating, is bearing the brunt.

In recent weeks, at least 14 people died after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in southern Ethiopia. Hundreds of livestock perished, and scores of houses were damaged. Last year, at least 65 people died in Rwanda as heavy rains pounded the region, while at least 194 deaths were reported in Kenya. The end of 2019 saw at least 265 people killed and tens of thousands displaced during two months of relentless rainfall, which affected almost 2 million people and washed away tens of thousands of livestock in several countries.