Three days of torrential rain destroyed more than 1 000 homes, most of them mud huts, and unearthed 50 tombs in a rural section of Burundi, officials said Wednesday.
The downpour started on Sunday and washed away 900 homes in Mpanda and 200 in Kinyinya, according to administrators in the region. The homeless took refuge in neighbouring areas, said Sylvestre Nzohabonayo, Mpanda’s administrator.
”It is a serious catastrophe that requires too many means to be under control,” said Toure Pegnaminy, a spokesperson for the United Nation mission here.
Fifty tombs in a cemetery also were destroyed before the rain ended on Tuesday night.
Burundi is emerging from more than a decade of ethnic clashes between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, which left more than 250 000 people, mostly civilians, dead. A series of peace deals led to democratic elections last year and the formation of a power-sharing government.
About 80% of Burundians are subsistence farmers, many eking out livings on small plots. Nearly half of adults are illiterate. The economy, based largely on the export of coffee, has been ravaged by the conflict. — Sapa-AP