At least 129 die in Rwanda mudslides

The Rwanda Broadcasting Agency on Wednesday reported that the death toll was continuing to rise. Eight more people are dead in neighboring Uganda. Weeks of rain spawned mudslides that overran roadways and destroyed houses. Survivor Madeline Twizerimana told the government-backed New Times newspaper Thursday that her home collapsed soon after her family of 10 ran outside. “It is God who saved us,” she said.

Are these storm disasters common? Rwanda’s Ministry of Emergency Management reported that weather-related disasters killed more than 60 people from January to late April and injured nearly 160 others. During the same time, weather damaged more than 1,200 houses and roughly 5,000 acres of land.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report from the WORLD archives about flooding in South Africa last year that had the region reeling.