Radio Okapi/Ph. Ph/ Emmanuel Elameji of Kabedi.”/>
MONUSCO and UN agencies brought, on Friday May 12, food and non-food aid to flood victims in Kalehe (South Kivu).
This donation was handed over by the head of the MONUSCO/South Kivu office, Cecillia Piazza, to Bushushu in the presence of the administrator of the Kalehe territory and members of the Kalehe crisis committee.
« We entrust you as a crisis committee with these supplies for the affected communities of Bushushu and Nyamukubi. And it is important that the assistance goes to the most vulnerable and in full transparency. So we are counting on you, Father “, she said.
This assistance consists of bags of beans, rice, corn flour, cassava flour, sugar, powdered milk, cans of vegetable oil, boxes of soap as well as 50 pieces of ladies’ loincloths.
On this occasion, Cecillia Piazza expressed the will of the UN mission to restore traffic between Bushushu and Nyamukubi, a section cut following the damage of the torrential rain of May 4th.
According to local sources, UNICEF, WHO, OCHA and other humanitarian organizations are present at the scene of the tragedy in Kalehe.
The World Food Program (WFP), for example, delivered 8 tonnes of high-energy biscuits to cover one week’s needs of affected communities.
He plans to reach 6,100 people in the locality of Bushushu and 5,000 in Nyamukubi.
Governor Ngwabidje’s visit to hospitalized survivors
On the same Friday, the Governor of South Kivu, Théo Ngwabidje visited about forty survivors of the Kalehe floods admitted to the Bukavu General Reference Hospital.
These victims were transferred there by the government with the support of humanitarian partners for appropriate care, including surgery.
In front of the press, Théo Ngwabidje was delighted to note the stability of their state of health after having undergone the surgeries.
He promised to take the two infants into care with the intention of adopting them after legal proceedings.
The parents of these infants would have perished during this natural disaster.
A provincial coordination committee is set up under the coordination of OCHA in collaboration with the provincial government of South Kivu.
This committee will have the task of responding to the emergencies of the Kalehe disaster, by identifying and classifying the states of needs of the victims according to the order of priority.
Continuation of searches for the missing in the rubble
Apart from more than 430 bodies discovered, ten days after these floods, research continues on the two sites of Bushshu and Nyamukubi.
Victims who have lost their family members want to see their bodies for a dignified burial.
« I have lost many of my relatives and friends. Their corpses have not yet been found until today and we are still looking for their bodies, and it is unclear what can be done now. There is little chance that we will find their bodies but it will be difficult to recognize that they are our family members so that we can bury them. We are very struck psychologically, we no longer know what we can do in life suggested one of the survivors, Ancher Mugenzi.
The other said he had lost about thirty members of his family, including his two parents, without having found their bodies.
He also asked the provincial government to relocate them from Bushushu.