An inconvenient truth has unfolded in the Congo. But for Africans, black skin turns privileged people off; their pain and suffering don’t even register with most. Not me; the reality is too horrifying for the comfortable to ignore, but ignore they will with the additional help of the corporate media.
Rescue workers are still finding mud-caked bodies from flooding in the Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The heavy rainfall and resulting landslides poured over the region, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in recent memory. The bodies are being buried in mass graves, reports Reuters. The Secretary of the United Nations, António Guterres, said the Congo flooding is yet another grim reminder of accelerating climate change. The rainfall has been relentless since early April, likely creating the conditions ripe for landslides when heavy rainfall fell on May 4th.
In a statement, the provincial government said heavy rains on 04 May 2023 caused several rivers including the Cibira/Cabondo and Nyamukubi to overflow, flooding villages including Bushushu and Nyamukubi in the Kalehe Territory.
The town of Kalehe sits on the shore of Lake Kivu, around 50 km (30 miles) across the lake from the Western Province of Rwanda where over 100 people have died in floods and landslides over the last few days.
Survivors have found their way to hospitals that still stand where over eighty percent of injuries are reportedly broken bones. The people of Africa have done little that adds CO2 to the atmosphere but suffer the most severe consequences.
Warning: Graphic content from Reuters:
Warming temperatures due to climate change are increasing the intensity and frequency of Africa's rains, according to U.N. climate experts.
This can increase the destruction wrought by the floods and landslides that were already common in South Kivu. Poor urban planning and weak infrastructure also make it more vulnerable to such events.
Heavy rains also triggered flooding and landslides in neighbouring Rwanda last week, killing 130 people and destroying more than 5,000 homes.
Heavy rainfall is not unusual in this tropical region, but climate change adds more moisture to the atmosphere and is a threat multiplier making natural disasters that much worse in impacted communities worldwide.
Meanwhile, worldwide vultures continue to exploit the poor in developing nations.
Ugly truths below.