KALEHE, Congo (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in eastern Congo has risen to over 200 and many more are still missing, according to local authorities in South Kivu province.

Thomas Bakenge, manager of Kalehe, the hardest-hit area, told reporters Saturday that 203 bodies had been recovered so far but that efforts to find more were continuing.

In the village of Nyamukubi, where hundreds of homes were washed away, rescue workers and survivors dug through the ruins on Saturday and searched the mud for more bodies.

Villagers wept as they gathered around some of the bodies recovered so far, which lay on the grass covered in muddy cloths near a rescue post.

Grieving survivor Anuarite Zikujuwa said she lost her entire family, including her in-laws, as well as many of her neighbors. “The whole village has been turned into a wasteland. There are only stones left and we can’t even tell where our country once was,” she said.

Michake Ntamana, a rescue worker who is helping to search for and bury the dead, said villagers are trying to identify and collect the bodies of their loved ones that have been found so far. He said some bodies washed down from villages higher in the hills were buried wrapped only in leaves from the trees. “It’s really sad because we don’t have anything else here,” he said.

Rivers burst their banks in villages in the Kalehe area near the shore of Lake Kivu on Thursday. The authorities have reported numerous injuries. A survivor told the AP the flash floods came so quickly that they took everyone by surprise.

South Kivu Governor Théo Ngwabidje visited the area to see the destruction for himself. He posted on his Twitter account that the provincial government had provided medicine, shelter and food.

Several main roads into the affected area were made impassable by the rains, hampering relief efforts.

President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday declared a national day of mourning to honor the victims, and the central government is dispatching a crisis management team to South Kivu to support the provincial government.

Heavy rains in recent days have left thousands in east Africa miserable, with heavy rains also hit parts of Uganda and Kenya.

Floods and landslides in Rwanda, which borders Congo, killed 129 people earlier this week.

Local government official Bakenge told the AP: “This is the fourth time such damage has been caused by the same rivers. Less than 10 years go by without them causing enormous damage.”

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Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa contributed to this story.

The eyes of the whole world were on this Saturday, May 6th, for the coronation of King Charles III. and Queen Camilla aimed at the United Kingdom. After the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, members of the royal family made their way onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace. All except Prince Harry, who was sidelined on this historic day.

He had made the trip alone, without his wife Meghan Markle. This Saturday, May 6th, after several weeks of hesitation and talk, Prince Harry was actually at the coronation of King Charles III. Arriving at the Abbey with a huge smile alongside his cousin, Princess Beatrice, Prince Harry took his place in the third row, next to Jack Brooksbank, his cousin Eugenie’s husband, and behind his aunt, Princess Anne. A place that says a lot about the state of his relationships with the rest of the royal family.

After the ceremony in Westminster, King Charles III. and Queen Camilla the crowd on the balcony of Buckingham Palace surrounded by their page honours. While Kate Middleton and Prince William, the Welsh couple, were also present to greet the crowd on the balcony and take part in the Royal Air Force flypast, the Duke of Sussex did not join his family. The reason ? He was simply not invited, no longer considered an active member of the royal family as he relinquished his functions within the British Crown.

Prince Harry, who was also stripped of his military titles, was not allowed to appear on the balcony with the rest of his family for Queen Elizabeth II’s anniversary in June 2022.

Prince Harry, pariah of the British monarchy

Since leaving the monarchy three years ago because he was fed up with the treatment of Meghan Markle, the Duke of Sussex has settled in California with his wife and their two children, Archie and Lilibet. On March 7, 2021, an explosive interview with Meghan and Harry was broadcast on American television, which triggered a veritable earthquake in the United Kingdom, in particular because of the Duchess’s allegations of racism.

Harry’s memoir, titled The Substitute, in which he references his family’s exploits, was released in January 2023 and was very poorly received by the Crown, with whom relations are more fragile than ever.

US wildlife expert and geoscientist Rosie Moore recently released an incredible video of a python.

The python swallows a whole being (video screenshot) – Ecoo.it

Rosie Moore She is an expert on wildlifemainly specialized in it long reptiles, who recently made headlines with her videos that quickly went viral. One of his latest and most controversial clips stars a Burmese python about five and a half meters long.

The great reptile is dead and is being sort of riddled with a nucleus of scientists directing it an autopsyto clarify what happened to the animal and what it swallowed. In fact, it seems immediately obvious that the animal has swallowed something very big.

What this big python swallowed: the autopsy

Researcher Rosie Moore is a social media star (screenshot from Instagram) – Ecoo.it

This is nothing new: this type of reptile is used to swallowing great beings and particularly cruel is the moment when A 7-meter python swallowed a woman. In this case, the autopsy was performed in a Florida laboratory it let out the horror that awed the scientists.

They made a curious discovery after sensing a large object in line: they immediately realized something was wrong. If you have dealt with the scalpelwas the surprise for her especially frightening and only with strong stomachs could they maintain the composure appropriate in these extreme cases.

In the video she released, Moore explained that a Burmese python (whose scientific name is Python molurus bivittatus) can grow over six meters tall and is apparently capable of doing so, like many reptiles Swallow objects or creatures even a certain size.

Rosie Moore with a baby alligator (screenshot from Instagram) – Ecoo.it

“The Burmese pythons must be euthanized in Florida” – explained Rosie Moore in the video – “This python was euthanized by those who found it and turned over to a research laboratory for autopsy and scientific sampling.” These large reptiles have invaded ecologically endangered areas like Everglades National Park, are effectively gaining a foothold where they shouldn’t have, the expert said.

The alligator found in the stomach of the great python

This is due to thesubtropical environment from South Florida, but also at adaptability that these large reptiles could have evolved over time. These are carnivorous reptiles that a diet consists mainly of small birds and mammals. For this reason, the result of the autopsy on this large reptile did not really surprise anyone.

Rosie Moore explained that the Florida scientists who performed the autopsy came to light a five-foot-long alligator who was now definitely dead, but who was still extraordinary at the same time intact. A gruesome find, then, but at the same time very stimulating for those intending to study these large reptiles.

Lula and the monarch met at Buckingham Palace on Friday night, on the eve of the British nobleman’s coronation.

“The first thing the king told me was that I had to take care of the Amazon. I replied: ‘I need help,'” explained the president of the South American giant, which is home to more than 60% of the largest tropical forest on the planet, during a conference press in London.

The Brazilian President on Saturday called on the industrialized countries to “take the climate problem very seriously”.

On Friday, following a meeting between Lula and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the UK pledged to provide £80m (about €92m) to the Amazon Fund, set up in 2008 to protect the forest and of which Norway is the main donor.

As he did at COP-27 in Egypt in November, Lula slammed developed countries for failing to meet their 2009 pledge of $100 billion a year in climate aid to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the poorest , have not met countries.

“These countries that destroyed their forests during their industrialization 200 years ago need to understand that they have a debt in terms of carbon emissions, and they need to pay that debt so that we can conserve our forest,” Lula added.

Lula, who previously ruled the South American country from 2003 to 2010, returned to power for a third term last January and vowed to make conservation of the Amazon a priority of his term and end illegal deforestation by 2030.

“It’s a matter of honor,” he insisted in London.

Under the presidency of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, average annual deforestation in the Amazon increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.

© 2023 AFP