At least one person died after a house collapsed due to a landslide in Rubavu, a district in northwestern Rwanda on Sunday, a local official confirmed. The town is located in one of the tiny Central African nation’s disaster-prone areas.
The house collapsed due to landslides from the top of the mountain caused by heavy rains in Rubavu district’s Rugabano district, one of the region’s senior administrative officers, Faustin Nkurunziza said.
The disaster occurred just a few weeks after heavy rain in Rwanda killed 58 people, destroyed farms and swept away homes in January.
Thirteen people were killed in Kigali in December while officials said more than 100 homes were destroyed due to excessive floodwaters.
The government has since evacuated thousands of households in wetlands and other areas prone to flooding triggered by heavy rains.
Further heavy rains are forecast in the next few days, the Rwanda Meteorology Agency has said.
Notably hilly, Kigali and northern Rwanda make it vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.
A series of disasters have destroyed at least 3,117 hectares of crops, 124 roads and 64 bridges, disrupting national economic activity from January to April this year.
At least 140 people died from accidents, while 225 were injured between January and April this year, according to an official report by the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management.
