While residents who were affected by flooding and landslides in Western and Northern provinces, on May 4, breathed a sigh of relief after the government provided support to bury their lost relatives, some are still devastated as their beloved ones are still missing under landslides. ALSO READ: Flood disaster: Death toll climbs to 130, over 5,000 houses swept The most affected are children and mothers according to witnesses. Claudine Uzamukunda lost two children in Mukondo cell, Rugerero sector, Rubavu district. “We were sleeping and were woken up by people crying in our neighborhood. As we were trying to get up, the landslide swept our house,” she narrated. She said the house was accommodating seven people and only three people survived while four people passed on. “The victims including my two sisters (siblings) and my three-year-old child were buried but my seven-year-old son called Jacque Niyitegeka is still missing under the landslide. Searching for the victims started on May 3, and until now he has not been found anywhere,” she told The New Times in an interview. ALSO READ: Rubavu: Woman who lost husband, three children narrates ordeal A total of 130 people lost their lives across the Western, Northern, and Southern Province, after a devastating downpour caused floods and mudslides on the night of Tuesday, May 2, and the early hours of May 3. The ministry in charge of emergency management announced that search and rescue efforts continue to get those that are still missing. While some children died as others went missing in the flood and landslide disasters, there are testimonies of those who miraculously survived. Feza Nteziyaremye, another resident in the same area says he managed to rescue his six-month-old baby although his wife was immediately killed by the floods. “I tried to save both the mother and the baby. I put the baby to my back and tried to hold my wife so that we can escape. As we tried to go out, the floods had already submered our house. I climbed the wall with my baby to pass through the window so that I could jump together with my baby but the flooding swayed us away with my baby. The floods washed me away and fortunately, I grabbed one of the banana trees near the drainage which helped me and my baby to survive. However, my wife immediately died,” he narrated. ALSO READ: Four school children from same family perished in Rubavu landslides 10 % of children in North-west exposed to river flooding Children are more physically vulnerable than adults to extreme weather, droughts, and floods according to Climate Change, Disaster Risks and Children index, presented on March 28, 2023, by Murtaza Malik, the Chief, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF-Rwanda during a disaster management conference in Kigali. “10 per cent of children are exposed to riverine flooding predominantly northern and western provinces,” Malik said. Approximately one billion children (nearly half of the world's children) living in 33 countries are at an ‘extremely high risk’ from the impacts of climate change. Almost 80 percent (26 out of 33) of the “Extremely High Risk” countries identified are Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
