AFRICA/DR CONGO – Bukavu mourns 27 victims of the fire; civil society: “A humanitarian catastrophe”

AFRICA/DR CONGO – Bukavu mourns 27 victims of the fire; civil society: “A humanitarian catastrophe”

Monday, 14 September 2026

Kinshasa (Fides News Agency) – The funerals of the 27 victims of the fire that devastated a school on September 10 in the Cimpunda district of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were held today, September 14 (see Fides, 11/9/2026).

Six of the victims were adults, while the others were minors, pupils at the school affected by the blaze. The grief of the population is compounded by anguish over a series of fires that have been affecting the city for at least a week. Bukavu is currently under the control of M23 rebels.

According to a statement from the provincial coordination of the Civil Society of South Kivu, sent to Fides, “in less than a week, hundreds of homes, two schools, a church and the row of 66 shops in the Kadutu market have been reduced to ashes.” These include 40 homes in Ponzi, where three people died, and 174 families left homeless in Nyamugo. Citing figures from the Congolese administration based in Uvira, the last stronghold of the Kinshasa government in South Kivu, the statement says that 2,500 homes were destroyed by fire between July and August this year.

“This is a humanitarian catastrophe,” Bukavu’s civil society says, calling on the M23 administration to account for the situation.

In particular, it is asking where the fire services are and why the causes of the fires have not been investigated. “Every fire without an investigation is a form of complicity,” the statement says. Civil society representatives also point out that the administration controlled by M23 is forcibly collecting taxes from the local population without providing anything in return, particularly to those who have lost their homes in the fires.

Bukavu’s civil society is therefore appealing to the international community and the authorities of the DRC to assist the 12,000 people who are in a situation of “extreme vulnerability.”

The statement concludes by calling for urgent assistance for communities affected by the fires, the deployment of the four fire engines donated by a local tycoon, and the reconstruction of the two destroyed schools.

(L.M.) (Fides News Agency, 14/9/2026)

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