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Over four hundred are dead, and fifty-five hundred are missing from flooding in the Congo [1]

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Date: 2023-05-09

The equivalent of 85 billion tons of carbon dioxide — a huge amount equal to three-quarters of the carbon stored in forests across the contiguous United States — is locked in the living vegetation of the Congo rainforest, which holds much of the second-largest tropical tropical tropical rainforest in the world, according to new research. NASA (2017) But there is oil in that rainforest and lots of peat ready to burn. We are killing ourselves, and most don't even know it.

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.

From Floodlist:

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:

x WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

The death toll from floods that devastated two villages in Democratic Republic of Congo last week has more than doubled, the provincial governor said, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country's recent history https://t.co/Pm6BJn2qHu pic.twitter.com/pw9oyz59GN — Reuters (@Reuters) May 8, 2023

Reuters writes:

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.

Multiple channelised mud and debris flows on the banks of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image copyright Planet, used with permission, dated 7 May 2023.

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.

x The death toll from the floods last week in the eastern Democratic Republic of #Congo has risen to nearly 400; Officials say many people remain missing. pic.twitter.com/3Kf5VK4XfX — SNN (@snntv_en) May 8, 2023

Meanwhile, worldwide vultures continue to exploit the poor in developing nations.

Ugly truths below.

x An inconvenient truth. Cobalt is found in lithium batteries used in many smartphones, laptops and electric cars. 40,000 child slaves in Congo are among those risking their lives in appalling conditions to mine the cobalt while the landscape is plundered and destroyed. pic.twitter.com/rXdrnAwQHz — James Melville (@JamesMelville) May 3, 2023

x CONGO - unregulated mines employ thousands of workers, mining cobalt for batteries, so NET ZERO can be ‘achieved’ & we feel good.



These mines often collapse & trapped workers are dug out by hand, if they are lucky.



But hey it saves the planet, right ?



pic.twitter.com/arO9WjHUdh — Bernie's Tweets (@BernieSpofforth) March 25, 2023

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