The Democratic Republic of the Congo was again affected by a natural disaster. The territory of Kalehe, in the province of South Kivu, suffered deadly floods on May 4, caused by the intensity of the rain. Faced with this dramatic situation, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC and Coordinator of Humanitarian Action Bruno Lemarquis allocated 3 million dollars from the humanitarian fund to strengthen operations for access to water, sanitation, health, shelter and household items.
Protecting the children of disaster victims is also one of the priorities of this aid from Monusco. There is also an urgent need to carry out actions to care for the wounded, dignified and secure burial of the bodies, protection against the risk of gender-based violence, as well as the reconstitution of certain lost civil documents.
The death toll so far is catastrophic, with nearly 450 people dead. The images of humanitarian aid to flood victims in Kalehe, DRC, are heartbreaking. To provide support, NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also evacuated 41 seriously injured people for proper medical treatment.
However, the root causes of this disaster need to be assessed. Massive deforestation in the DRC has been singled out as a contributing factor to the recurrence of such natural disasters. And if the humanitarian response in real time is essential, upstream prevention is just as important, if we want to avoid the repetition of these tragedies.