More than 170 people died as a result of heavy rains and flooding in the eastern DR Congo’s South Kivu province.
The floods follows the deaths of dozens in neighboring Rwanda.
Theo Ngwabije, governor of South Kivu, said dozens of people were missing in the Kalehe region.
The area is in west of Lake Kivu and near the Rwandan border.
“We have about 176 people dead,” he said during a visit to the disaster area.
“This toll is only provisional,” he explained. “We also have about 100 people who are missing.”
Archimede Karhebwa, Kalehe’s assistant administrator, previously told AFP that a preliminary toll of 100 people had died.
The government announced on Friday evening that a day of national mourning will be observed on Monday, with flags lowered to half-mast “in memory of the lost compatriots.”
According to him, several villages in Kalehe were submerged when rivers burst their banks following heavy rains.
According to Karhebwa, the floods destroyed hundreds of homes and “surprised vendors and their clients in the markets.”
Innocent Mupenda, a civil society figure from the region, said a downpour started on Thursday afternoon before the “river carried away villagers”.
