Posted on Wed, Feb. 05, 2003

Tornado Kills 164 in Central Congo

Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo - A tornado tore through remote villages in central
Congo, killing 164 people, destroying homes and ruining crops, the
country's top health official said Wednesday.

The 15-minute twister also injured 1,700 people - more than 200
critically - in Bandundu province on Sunday, said Mashako Mamba, Congo's
health minister.

"Most people were killed or injured by debris from huts and buildings
made of sticks," Mamba said. "The crops have been uprooted by the wind
and the water and famine is threatening."

Bandundu province is 150 miles northeast of the capital, Kinshasa. News
of the disaster was slow to reach the capital due to the region's
remoteness.

An airplane stocked with medicine has headed for region, Mamba said, and
teams of trauma specialists and surgeons were being mobilized.

Congo is emerging from a four-year, six-nation war that has killed an
estimated 2.5 million people, most from war-induced disease and
starvation. Despite a series of peace accords, fighting between rebel
groups has persisted in the east of mineral-rich central African
country.

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