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Burundi

Burundi: Floods & Landslides Flash Update No. 2, 8 December 2019

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HIGHLIGHTS

• Since January 2019, heavy rainfall has affected thousands, displaced almost 13,000 people, and caused at least 45 deaths in Burundi.

• The rains have triggered flash floods, mudslides and landslides in various provinces, especially Bujumbura Rural & Mairie, Cibitoke, Bubanza, Muyinga, Cankuzo, and Muramvya provinces.

• These disasters have damaged infrastructure, and hampered access to food, water, education and healthcare. There is also an increased risk of mosquitos proliferating.

• Since 4 December, at least a dozen hills around Nyempundu, in Mugina commune in Cibitoke, have been affected by landslides that have caused damage. 26 bodies were pulled out of the mud, 10 people disappeared, and 10 people were transferred to the Cibitoke referral hospital.

• Crops were devastated and livestock were killed. Roads and bridges have collapsed, and water access points were washed away and destroyed.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

With the early onset of the September 2019 rainy season and above-average rainfall forecasted, the risk of natural disasters occurring in the coming days is increasing. East Africa has recently experienced a bout of unseasonably heavy rainfall due to higher-than-average water temperatures in the Indian Ocean, which is partially attributed to a larger, global phenomenon of rising ocean temperatures. Burundi is among the twenty most vulnerable countries to climate change and natural hazards.

In the night of 4 to 5 December, 26 people died, 10 people disappeared, 10 people were injured, and over 240 households were affected by torrential rains and landslides which caused devastation on at least a dozen hills in the hills surrounding Nyempundu in the northwestern province of Cibitoke. At the same time, material damage was observed in the provinces of Bubanza, Muramvya, an area surrounding the Kibira forest, and in the province of Cankuzo further east.

The death toll and number of people displaced could rise in the days ahead as further information is received and verified from affected areas. Further damage is also to be feared, as the rains continue, and forecasts still indicates above normal rainfall.

An intersectoral team, led by OCHA, was able to access these hard-to-reach affected areas to evaluate the destruction. A meeting with the Government’s Provincial Platform, led by the Governor's Counsellor in charge of social affairs, on 6 December, made it possible to communicate the international community's willingness to help the affected people.

Local emergency relief services are being deployed by the Government of Burundi's Civil Protection and Disaster Management Unit, the public provincial and communal administration, the Burundi Red Cross (BRC), the police, the army, and the Cibitoke and Mugina Health Districts.

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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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