A week after Congo floods, volunteers dig through debris for bodies

FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the ruins of a home destroyed following rains that destroyed the remote, mountainous area and ripped through the riverside villages of Nyamukubi, Kalehe territory in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Djaffar Sabiti

BUSHUSHU, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - With shovels, sticks and bare hands, Red Cross volunteers struggled to clear caked mud from around a body half buried in a landslide in Bushushu village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

A week after torrential rains triggered deadly floods, the workers said they were exhausted and running out of equipment. But they keep finding corpses under piles of debris, buried in hillsides, floating in waterways and the nearby lake.