The death toll in the flooding in western Rwanda has gone up to 127, as a rescue operation is under way to reach stranded people amid torrential rains.
“Rescue interventions are ongoing in the most affected districts … in order to secure endangered citizens,” President Paul Kagame’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This could be the highest disaster-induced death toll to be recorded in the country in the shortest period, according to available records from recent years,” the government-backed New Times newspaper reported.
The hardest-hit districts in the western province of Rwanda were Rutsiro, where at least 26 people died, Nyabihu with 19 killed, and Rubavu and Ngororero with 18 deaths each, said François Habitegeko, governor of Rwanda’s Western Province.
“It rained heavily all night, causing immense suffering in the districts of Ngororero, Rubavu, Nyabihu, Rutsiro, and Karongi,” he said.
A video posted on the state-run Rwanda Broadcasting Agency’s Twitter account showed muddy water running along a road and houses that had been destroyed.
