|
DRC quake victims get tents
08/02/2008 08:06 - (SA)
Kinshasa - Relief workers have managed to provide tents and other supplies to more than 800 families in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after a major earthquake, says a United Nations relief agency.
The death toll from Sunday's disaster in the DRC's Sud-Kivu province and the west of neighbouring Rwanda rose on Wednesday after an injured man died in Kitana, said the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
A series of tremors, the biggest of which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, has claimed seven lives in the DRC and 38 in Rwanda, and injured more than 500 people, according to the latest official tolls.
In Sud-Kivu, 823 affected families have received tents and coverings, "out of a total of 1 127 families registered to date", the agency said, adding that 150 more tents would soon be flown in from the UN depot in Brindisi, Italy.
Many people were in church at the time, and in both countries hundreds of houses collapsed or were badly damaged, leaving more than 5 500 homeless in the DRC, acording to Ocha's latest statement.
The United Nations said on Thursday that 250 homes had been destroyed in Sud-Kivu and almost 1 000 were uninhabitable.
In Cyangugu in neighbouring Rwanda, hundreds of brick homes were reported to have cracked or to have collapsed.
- AFP
|
News
