Restore 500 Kahengera Flood Victims in Kalemie DRC

Pushing for Kahengele victims of water flooding to be considered for help

Kahengele village is one among areas that have been seriously hit throughout the years by water flooding and we are again waiting the same water to displace so many people in this April 2026. The period of 2020 and 2025 was the waste for Tanganyika Province in general and Kalemie City in particular as many people fell victims of the flooding.

Recently in 2025 the DRC Government offered relief aid to the victims of flooding in Kalemie but those of Kahengele were excluded. Generally those in Kahengele are migrants, refugees, and other people with no clear identity living alongside few local communities. This alone could have been one among the cause of their exclusion as they are not perceived as politically strategic.

Kahengele village, is one among the fertile areas in Kalemie and people generally live on agriculture, they produce things which are quickly sold in Markets, this also explains why people would resist to leave their land and it is located on the main road.

We continue engaging with people in various ways they can protect themselves and avoid risky places, rethink about their agriculture and put in place crops that can resist to water.

All what we are doing are temporal, we know that the durable solution is to build a Wall on the Bank of the River and a capacity building to people to respond to the problem.

Testimony from Kahengele Flood Survivor

The Democratic Republic of Congo is highly affected by Flooding which makes new victims each year.

Since 2021 we withnessed the presence of heavy rain in this Province which affected our crops, increased the water of the rivers and the Lakes Tanganyika and affected so many people. This year 2025 especially from the month of July we saw the rain and water reducing but progressively being replaced by hit because it is too hot here. Over the years my Ancestors lived alongside this River Rugumba in this very same village of Kahengele, this River helped us to get Fish which we ate and sold also to the Market in order to get money, but now the water which increased since 2021 affected also the Fish, it is hard to get fish in this River anymore. We also planted crops alongside this River and got a lot of food but water also destroyed everything and you can imagine that for the last four years we have been living without clear stable source of food, we also grew animals here which helped us to get meat and money. We lost all these livelihood activities connected to this River. I shifted far from the River up to this Hill where, I’m trying to restart a new life, to build a new house but I have not managed to get money, I need to come up with other livelihood activities which can help me to survive here. I’m not yet sure what I should but I have started with Chicken and as you can see I have now 5, so my target is to get at least 100  chicken which can also produce eggs. Thank you so much for the support you have extended to me, but also please think about all other survivors who are living in Camps and all those who have nothing to do and are still in Kahengele.