President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday declared a day of national mourning and a team of ministers is expected to travel to the area to coordinate humanitarian aid and disaster management, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said.
The current rainy season, typical for South Kivu, is expected to last until the end of May.
Many people have been reported missing after the rains caused rivers to overflow on May 4, in the Kalehe region as rescue operations continue.
So far 400 bodies have been recovered following floods and landslides that hit two villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo last week.
Authorities earlier said 200 people died following heavy rain on Thursday
In several villages near the shores of Lake Kivu, people have been digging mud by hand in search of missing relatives.
Congolese Red Cross volunteers do not have body bags
They are forced to pile up the bodies covered in blankets in the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu province.
The disaster in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo came two days after floods killed at least 131 people and destroyed thousands of homes in neighboring Rwanda, which lies across Lake Kivu.
It is now three days since the floods occurred and the number of dead continues to increase, now it has reached 394.
A distraught mother in Nyamukubi said her husband had survived and was hospitalized but all her children were missing.
“It’s like the end of the world,” 27-year-old Gentille Ndagijimana, who also lost her parents and two sisters, told AFP news agency.
In the village of Bushushu, some buildings that are still half standing are buried in the mud.
Last week the neighboring country of Rwanda was also hit by floods after Lake Kivu broke its banks and caused the deaths of more than 130 people.
The head of the United Nations, António Guterres, has said that the floods are another example of the acceleration of climate change.
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