In the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, severe floods and landslides brought on by heavy rains have resulted in at least 100 fatalities and hundreds more injuries.
Officials, according to Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, are still looking for other bodies. On Tuesday, he remarked on state television, “We came to inspect the damage and the primary damage we perceive is human.”
With a population of about 15 million, Kinshasa has developed from a cluster of fishing villages on the banks of the Congo River into one of Africa’s biggest megacities.
Kinshasa has been more susceptible to flash floods following heavy rains, which have become more common due to climate change, as a result of poorly controlled fast urbanization.
According to three local officials who told the AP news agency that people were murdered, homes were inundated, and roads were destroyed, 12 million people reside in the 24 areas of Kinshasa that were affected by the floods.
According to Alid’or Tshibanda, the mayor of the Ngaliema district, more than thirty bodies were still being counted.
In the heart of Kinshasa, arterial roadways were flooded. Social media posts revealed a landslide blocking Highway 1, a vital supply route connecting the capital to the port of Matadi on the Atlantic Ocean, in the steep Mont-Ngafula neighborhood.
In other pictures, entire neighborhoods were submerged under muddy water, and roadways were becoming sinkholes.
A resident of Mont-Ngafula named Blanchard Mvubu told an AFP reporter at the scene, “We’ve never seen a flood here on this size.
“While I was sleeping, I felt water in the house. It’s a catastrophe. Nothing could be saved, and we lost everything in the house.
Nearby, a young guy was begging onlookers for 500 Congolese francs ($0.24) so he could carry them across the waterlogged street on his back.
A second man, who claimed to be a teacher, was wading through the water barefoot while holding a pair of shoes in one hand and a plastic bag filled with paperwork in the other.
I have no other option, he said. “I have to administer a test to students.”
Local officials were anticipated to meet with representatives of the interior ministry and other state bodies to discuss the emergency while the prime minister and province governor were in the affected districts.
When low-lying areas of Kinshasa were inundated by intense rains in 2019, some houses and roads collapsed, resulting in at least 39 fatalities.
According to a 2020 World Bank document, flooding in Kinshasa costs households $1.2 million per day due to widespread transportation disruptions and infrastructure damage.
