Harare, Zimbabwe – Five children were killed after a dam collapsed in eastern Zimbabwe, and rescuers were looking for two others who were reported as missing, the country’s disaster management agency said Thursday.
An influx of water after continuous rains in recent weeks violated the walls of the dam in a farm in Chipinge, a remote district in the east of the country, on Sunday. Initially, the authorities said that a four -year -old girl washing clothes with her mother and a 30 -year -old man died. The girl’s mother survived.
However, with some children not counted in the area, a frantic search and rescue mission began and resulted in the recovery of four more bodies of children this week.
The Disaster Agency of the Nation of Southern Africa, the Civil Protection Unit, said the search continues for two more children, eight and four years old, who are still missing.
The agency said the water outbreaks flooded downstream towns, catching children who were fishing or washing clothes in a nearby river by surprise and also destroying agricultural equipment and killing cattle.
A team of the Civil Protection Unit, the Police and the members of the community were combing the area to locate the missing children.
Zimbabwe, just out of the most severe drought in four decades, has seen incessant rains in many parts of the country in recent weeks.
