Village Buried By Slide

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 13

Village Buried By Slide

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) KINSHASA (Congo), Mar. 13. Tons of rain-sodden earth, shaken loose by a tremor thundered on to a village near Bukavu and buried alive its 260 inhabitants.

The latest Bukavu dispatch said the day of the disaster was Thursday and not early yesterday as originally reported by official sources. The location, said to be Kazipa in the official communique, was given as the old village of Luhonga, among the Mumosho group in the territory of Kabare, 10 miles south of Bukavu. The region’s remoteness de-

layed news of the disaster until yesterday. An Agence Congolaise de Presse report from Bukavu said a layer of earth five yards high and several miles long covered the village area and parts of adjacent plantations.

First reports said only seven of the village’s men, women and children survived the landslide.

Visible cracks in the mountain threatened further landslides, the news agent said. Villagers from neighbouring areas heard ear-splitting claps of noise as the hill gave way, according to the report. After two days of ceaseless rain, a tremor split the mound in two, the largest part crashing down. A remaining piece sheared lengthwise, stands about 1600 feet high.