An 80-year-old woman named Nyiramisago Anastasie, from Gakomeye Village, Wimana Cell, Ruharambuga Sector in Nyamasheke District, was found alive in an abandoned pit latrine after two days of being reported missing by her family.
Her family had lost track of her without knowing her whereabouts, only for her to be discovered in a toilet that had not been used for over a year, having fallen into it but still alive.
Speaking to Imvaho Nshya, the source of this story, a neighbor named Nambajimana Victor explained that the elderly woman lives with her son and daughter-in-law, who built her a small house next to theirs.
On Wednesday, July 9, in the afternoon, the elderly woman told them she was going to brew local beer. They didn’t ask much, and when she left, she never came back.
“Her daughter-in-law waited for her, but when night fell and she didn’t return, she alerted us, the neighbors. We began searching, but we couldn’t find her, so we went home,” Victor said.
The next morning, they reported the case to local authorities, and the residents started sharing the news and searching in the forests, along Lake Kivu, in abandoned houses, pits, gutters, and everywhere they thought she could be. They feared she might have been killed, or fallen due to weakness or drunkenness and died.
They searched all day on Thursday, July 10, but in vain.
On Friday morning, July 11, a larger search was organized.
“Residents from two whole villages were involved, hoping to find her body,” Victor added.
One team passed by an old, collapsed pit latrine that had not been used for over a year, surrounded only by a few sticks and bushes meant to prevent goats from falling in.
It was her grandchild who noticed fingers moving from inside the pit.
He shouted that he saw human hands waving above the surface.
The toilet was 6 meters deep, and it is believed the elderly woman fell with her walking stick, which she had taken along after drinking some alcohol. She felt like she was in the belly of the earth, hearing voices of people above, but too weak to shout.
She reportedly used the stick to dig small footholds, slowly pushing herself up over the course of two days, until she reached where she could be seen.
