DRC: about 20 swept away by a swollen river

Bad weather on Sunday left four people dead and around twenty missing in South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, when a building was swept away by a swollen river, the authorities said on Monday.

The accident occurred in a rural mining area in the Mwenga territory.

In heavy rain, local residents, small-scale miners, shopkeepers and farmers took shelter under a shed used as a makeshift restaurant on the banks of a river.

The rain "caused a landslide", Alexandre Ngandu, deputy mayor of Kamituga, a large town in this region of South Kivu, told AFP. The building collapsed and "the river swept away everything, people and property", he added.

"The toll is 20 missing and four bodies found", and the search is continuing, added Mr Ngandu.