Landslide kills at least 20 in eastern Congo

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At least 20 people were killed and several others are missing after a landslide in east Democratic Republic of Congo, the provincial government and a local official said on Monday.

The bodies of eight women and 13 children were discovered after the landslide hit a river in the locality of Bolowa on Sunday as people were washing clothes and cleaning kitchenware, Voltaire Batundi, a civil society leader in the wider Masisi territory said.

One person survived and has been taken to a health centre, he added.

“We think that maybe in the mud there are still other bodies,” he told Reuters by phone.

Search efforts continued on Monday, a spokesperson for the governor of North Kivu province, which includes Masisi, said. The statement put the death toll at 20.