By Nimi Princewill, CNN
Two babies were found alive on the shores of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo days after floods and landslides killed more than 400 people in two villages in the South Kivu province of the country.
“Two babies, including a boy of one month and two weeks and a girl of about two months, were recovered alive,” a spokesman for the Democratic Republic of the Congo Red Cross, Kally Maluku, told CNN on Thursday.
One of the babies was rescued alive from rubble near the lake by locals on Tuesday, Maluku said, adding that the other child was rescued on Saturday after being found floating in the lake.
“The boy had a fractured femur and a facial wound and the girl was safe,” Maluku said of the rescued babies, who were found in the flood-ravaged villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi. “The injured child lost his mother while the other child’s deceased mother and father have no trace.”
The death toll has continued to rise in Bushushu and Nyamukubi after heavy rains last week caused rivers to overflow their banks and created landslides that devastated villages.
Twenty-six more bodies were recovered Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 438, according to updated government figures. More than 1,000 people are still reported missing.
South Kivu Provincial Governor Theo Kasi told CNN earlier in the week that rescue operations were ongoing despite difficulties. “We are in a mess. We work despite the difficult conditions,” he said.
The provincial government also saying it was relocating flood-affected residents to safer locations and funding medical care for the injured, as well as funeral expenses for the deceased.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located within the Congo River Basin, where flood disasters are frequently reported and continues to deal with the devastating effects of flooding throughout the country.
At least 10 people died Wednesday in another landslide in the country’s Lubero territoryin North Kivu province, authorities said.
The CNN Wire
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