cAVE
Floods have killed five believers who were praying in a cave located in Nyamagabe District, southwestern Rwanda.

According to local leaders who confirmed the tragedy, there were 11 people in the cave praying at the time the incident happened.

"So far we have retrieved the bodies of the five who died; they included men and women mainly from Nyanza district," said Bonavanture Uwamahoro, District mayor

According to local sources, members of the prayer group are from Nyamagabe and Nyanza districts in south western district.

The survivors told a local newspaper that, after overflowing, a stream switched its usual track into the shallow two-end cavity sweeping away the five.

According to the statement by area police the survivors were taken to nearby health centers to assess their health.

"Religious leaders should forbid their people from pray from unknown places and it is prohibited to hold prayer meetings," reads part of police statement.

Earlier this week, Olivier Kayumba, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management cautioned people to remain vigilant during this rainy.

Kayumba said 53 people were killed and 84 others injured in different parts of Rwanda due to disasters triggered by heavy rains since January this year, Ministry of Emergency Management said on Friday.

He said that 858 houses, 196 hectares of crops, 23 roads, 17 bridges and eight churches, among others, were destroyed.

The update cited lightning, floods and rainstorms as the major causes of deaths.

Rwanda Meteorology Agency shows that heavy rains would continue until May in some parts of the country while in northern and western districts it will go on until June.

According to ministry figures, more than 100 people were killed last year in disasters such as landslides and floods, while more than 230 were injured.

Close 5,000 houses were damaged and more than 9,000 hectares of plantations were destroyed in the same period last year.