International Desk : At least 170 people have have killed after heavy rains and flooding in eastern DR Congo's South Kivu province, officials said.

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South Kivu governor Theo Ngwabije said dozens of people were unaccounted for in the Kalehe region, west of Lake Kivu and near the Rwandan border, where the floods also washed away hundreds of homes.

"We have about 176 people dead and 100 people missing ," he said while visiting the affected area.

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Archimede Karhebwa, the assistant administrator of Kalehe, said that about 100 people had died, according to a provisional toll.

A day of national mourning will be observed on Monday with flags lowered to half-mast "in memory of the lost compatriots", the government announced on Friday evening.

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Karhebwa said the floods carried away hundreds of houses and also "surprised vendors and their clients in the markets".

Karhebwa, Kalehe's assistant administrator, said that the rivers have burst their banks and caused disastrous flooding on four previous occasions.

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Last month, a landslide provoked by torrential downpours killed around 20 people in North Kivu, a province that neighbours South Kivu.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast nation the size of continental western Europe, is one of the poorest countries in the world, riddled by corruption and conflict in its east.

Sun News/MR

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