On the night of Saturday to Sunday June 4, several houses caught fire on Avenue Camp Zaïre, in the Nkafu district of the Kadutu commune in Bukavu (South Kivu).

According to Kadutu civil society, more than a thousand houses were burnt down. But the origin of the fire is not yet known.

No loss of life has been reported, but a few injured people have already been taken to medical facilities.

According to Hypocrate Marume, president of the Kadutu civil society, all the belongings in these houses went up in smoke.

In terms of estimates, there are now more than a thousand houses, and we could be looking at more than three thousand victims who have seen their homes go up in smoke, in any case, they have saved nothing in the way of possessions or anything else. We also have injured people who are currently being admitted to a medical facility.

The fire, whose origin is not known, is thought to have started in one house before gradually spreading to others.

But as houses are routinely stacked one on top of the other, and we’re in the dry season, the fire, according to the information we’ve received, rebounded from one house and then contaminated other houses. It must have been a brazier that started the fire”, explained Hypocrate Marume.

According to him, the progress of the fire was stopped by local youths using whatever means they could find:

The president of Kadutu’s civil society launches an SOS for the victims.